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The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)

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Re: The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)

#2

Post by bowsamic »

> In his laboratory work Heisenberg had to use a Fabry-Perot interferometer, a device for observing the interference of light waves, on which Wien had lectured extensively. But Heisenberg had no idea how to derive the resolving power of the interferometer nor, to Wien's surprise, could he derive the resolving power of such common instruments as the telescope and the microscope. When an angry Wien asked how a storage battery works, the candidate was still lost. Wien saw no reason to pass the young man, no matter how brilliant he was in other fields.

As a physicist, I feel like standards were much higher then! There's no way you would fail a student these days for not being able to derive something on the spot or know anything about a subject that isn't directly related to their PhD topic

Also a great illustration at points here of "imposter syndrome", or really that Heisenberg actually _was_ an imposter in certain senses. I understand it all too well. Being a physicist, or any kind of scientist, can be extremely emotional taxing and alienating

> When Heisenberg derived the uncertainty relations several years later, he used the resolving power of the microscope to derive the uncertainty relations-and he still had difficulty with it! And again, when Bohr pointed out the error, it led to emotional difficulties for Heisenberg.

Re: The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)

#4

Post by vjust »

TIL that a brilliant physicist nearly failed his physics exam (sort of). What is revealing is the broad-based knowledge that was expected of any student of those times. Unlike the super-specialities of today. A career in such fields (rather in any field) in those days required total dedication to academics. Also the importance of oral arguments and oral debate.

Re: The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)

#5

Post by zeroonetwothree »

bowsamic wrote: post #2

> In his laboratory work Heisenberg had to use a Fabry-Perot interferometer, a device for observing the interference of light waves, on which Wien had lectured extensively. But Heisenberg had no idea how to derive the resolving power of the interferometer nor, to Wien's surprise, could he derive the resolving power of such common instruments as the telescope and the microscope. When an angry Wien asked how a storage…

It’s true of any profession. Most people only learn the exact skills they need for their very specific job. If you ask them about anything slightly out of the way they won’t know. (Some people are exceptions of course)

I think it’s one of the downsides of economic specialization. Although the upsides probably outweigh it substantially.

Re: The sad story of Heisenberg's doctoral oral exam (1998)

#7

Post by tom-thistime »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #5
bowsamic wrote: post #2

> In his laboratory work Heisenberg had to use a Fabry-Perot interferometer, a device for observing the interference of light waves, on which Wien had lectured extensively. But Heisenberg had no idea how to derive the resolving power of the interferometer nor, to Wien's surprise, could he derive the resolving power of such common instruments as the telescope and the microscope. When an angry Wien asked how a storage…

It’s true of any profession. Most people only learn the exact skills they need for their very specific job. If you ask them about anything slightly out of the way they won’t know. (Some people are exceptions of course) I think it’s one of the downsides of economic specialization. Although the upsides probably outweigh it substantially.

I don't think Heisenberg was necessarily a narrow specialist, trained for just one job. He was one of the inventors of a whole new theory of mechanics.
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