PHYSICIST

Werner Heisenberg

1901 - 1976

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Icon of person Werner Heisenberg

Werner Karl Heisenberg (; German: [ˈvɛʁnɐ kaʁl ˈhaɪzn̩bɛʁk] ; 5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976) was a German theoretical physicist, one of the main pioneers of the theory of quantum mechanics, and a principal scientist in the Nazi nuclear weapons program during World War II. He published his Umdeutung paper in 1925, a major reinterpretation of old quantum theory. In the subsequent series of papers with Max Born and Pascual Jordan, during the same year, his matrix formulation of quantum mechanics was substantially elaborated. He is known for the uncertainty principle, which he published in 1927. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Werner Heisenberg has received more than 9,894,535 page views. His biography is available in 110 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 107 in 2019). Werner Heisenberg is the 16th most popular physicist (up from 19th in 2019), the 42nd most popular biography from Germany (up from 53rd in 2019) and the 4th most popular German Physicist.

Werner Heisenberg is most famous for his uncertainty principle. This principle states that it is impossible to measure both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time.

Memorability Metrics

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    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 110

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 8.62

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.99

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among PHYSICISTS

Among physicists, Werner Heisenberg ranks 16 out of 851Before him are Pierre Curie, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, James Prescott Joule, Robert Hooke, and J. Robert Oppenheimer. After him are Evangelista Torricelli, Henri Becquerel, Enrico Fermi, André-Marie Ampère, Erwin Schrödinger, and Georg Ohm.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1901, Werner Heisenberg ranks 3Before him are Hirohito, and Walt Disney. After him are Marlene Dietrich, Enrico Fermi, Leopold III of Belgium, Louis Armstrong, Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, Jacques Lacan, Sukarno, Fulgencio Batista, and Ngo Dinh Diem. Among people deceased in 1976, Werner Heisenberg ranks 4Before him are Mao Zedong, Agatha Christie, and Martin Heidegger. After him are Howard Hughes, Alvar Aalto, Luchino Visconti, Zhou Enlai, Fritz Lang, Max Ernst, Jean Gabin, and Bernard Montgomery.

Others Born in 1901

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Others Deceased in 1976

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In Germany

Among people born in Germany, Werner Heisenberg ranks 42 out of 7,253Before him are Angela Merkel (1954), Thomas Mann (1875), Erwin Rommel (1891), Robert Koch (1843), Hermann Göring (1893), and Bernhard Riemann (1826). After him are Alexander von Humboldt (1769), Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912), Pope Benedict XVI (1927), Karl Benz (1844), Marlene Dietrich (1901), and Adolf Eichmann (1906).

Among PHYSICISTS In Germany

Among physicists born in Germany, Werner Heisenberg ranks 4Before him are Albert Einstein (1879), Wilhelm Röntgen (1845), and Max Planck (1858). After him are Georg Ohm (1789), Heinrich Hertz (1857), Max Born (1882), Max von Laue (1879), Hermann von Helmholtz (1821), J. Hans D. Jensen (1907), Johannes Stark (1874), and Otto von Guericke (1602).