Article ID: CBB000931142

Crafting the Quantum: Arnold Sommerfeld and the Older Quantum Theory (2008)

unapi

Seth, Suman (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Volume: 39
Pages: 335--348


Publication Date: 2008
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: “Science and the Changing Senses of Reality circa 1900”.
Language: English

Arnold Sommerfeld (1868--1951) was among the most important students of the so-called `older' quantum theory. His many contributions included papers in 1915 and 1916 extending Niels Bohr's `planetary' model of the atom beyond circular orbits and his incorporation of relativistic corrections in order to explain hydrogenic fine structure. Originally a realist in his use of Bohr's model, Sommerfeld became increasingly disillusioned with model-building in general in the late nineteen-teens and early nineteen-twenties. This paper explores Sommerfeld's use of the term Zahlenmysterium (number mystery) as a self-description of his physical methodology. Rather than reading talk of mysticism as mere pandering to irrationalist forces in Weimar Germany, as some have suggested, I argue that one should see it as a genuine description of the scientific method Sommerfeld increasingly advocated throughout this period. That is, Sommerfeld drew upon and modified talk of Mystik as a means of expressing his own ideas on the importance of aesthetics in what might otherwise be cast as mere guesswork in his phenomenological spectroscopy. Mysticism, properly defined, was an integral part of what Sommerfeld termed die Technik der Quanten (`the craft of the quantum').

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Article Sibum, H. Otto (2008) Science and the Changing Senses of Reality circa 1900. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (p. 295). unapi

Citation URI
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Authors & Contributors
Seth, Suman
Janssen, Michel
Eckert, Michael
Duncan, Anthony
Camilleri, Kristian
Blai Pié i Valls
Concepts
Quantum mechanics
Physics
Complementarity
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Methodology of science; scientific method
Philosophy of science
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Places
Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
United States
Japan
Germany
Institutions
University of Tokyo
Kyōto Daigaku (Kyoto University)
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