The Pauli Effect Melvin Greenstadt Fairfax High School Los Angeles, California 90046 In connection with my presentation of atomic theory, I like t o relate a n ancedote from a n article by George Gamow1 One of the most powerful generalizations of modern physics states that each quantum orbit of an atom can contain no more than two electrons. It is sometimes called the Pauli principle, hut its author, the theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli . . . ,preferred to call it the exclusion principle. This may have been due to the fact that he did not wish to have it confused with the Pauli effect, a contribution to experimental physics of which he was especially proud. It is well known that theoretical physicists are quite inept in handline.. ea~erimental aoDaratus: in fact. the standine of a theoretical . .. ph\.-iris1 i\ wid to irp messurnble in terms of hi* ability I" break delicate devices merely I q tmrhmg them. By t h ~stsndnrd r M'olf~ang I',suli was a very un,d theoretical phyairw appnrnrus would fall.
break, shatter or burn when he merely walked into a laboratory. The explosion of some elaborate vacuum equipment in James Franck's laboratory at the University of Gttingen has been directly attributed to the Pauli effect: it was later definitely established that the mishap had occurred at the exact time a train carrying Pauli had stopped momentarily in the Giittingen railroad station. T h e anecdote iniects both historv and humor into the discnssion of electron configuration.-Thus, Pauli becomes a human being instead of a label. Those students who tend t o have catastrophic experiences with laboratory equipment can relate especially well to one of the ereat contributors t o science. Of course, Gamow was well known for his abilitv- t o D . ~.D U larize srience by presenting solid subject mattpr in a light vein. ' r h ( d ( ) r e , the historical content of the s u .) is ~ auite ~rohahlv . . apocryphal, h u t the story does introduce some warmth in& the subject. ~
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Gamow, George, Scientific American, July 1959,p. 74
Volume 53.Number 10, October 1976 / 847
