edited by MIRIAM C. NAGEL A w n High Schwl
ROGERR. FESTA
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Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958): A Brief Anecdotal Biography Roger R. Festa' Brien McMahan High Schaoi Norwalk. CT 06854
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There can never be two or more equivalent electrons in an atom, for which in a strong field the values of all the quantum numbers. . . are the same. If an electron is present, for which these quantum numbers. . .have definite values, then this state is "occupied." Following the announcement of the exdusion principle, the work of Heisenbera and Schroedinger soon gave shape to a consolidated and m&ern quantum &echani&~auliprepared a monograph updating the field in 1933 in the Handbuch der Physik. The article was published again in the 1958 edition of the Handbuch, still unchanged after 25 years. In 1928, the Swiss Board of Education appointed Pauli professor a t the Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zurich. Pauli has been described bv his students as a ~ o o r lecturer. He would speak softly, often mumbling to himself, and write sporadically on the chalkboard in small illegible script. His colleagues commented that he was re-thinking the suhiect while he was lecturina. Although his ~edaeoaical meihodology was students were-inspired by his thouahts. In adchion to his eccentric teaching techniques, Pauli was also somewhat of an anomaly in the laboratory. While unnuestionahlv the ereatest theoretical . ~hvsicistof his time. he > held a certain contempt for experimental physics. There existed a humorous incompatibility between Pauli and George von Hevesy (who developed the radioactive tracer technique)
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when they shared a room at Niels Bohr's institute in Copenhagen. Hevesy used the facility as a laboratory, while it was Pauli's office where he rocked in his chair as he contemplated his theories. When Hevesy complained that Pauli's rocking caused his instruments to shake, Pauli was amazed that Hevesy's research (the search for hafnium) had not yet been comnleted. ~ a u l i ' spersonal attributes often did not sit as well with his colleagues and acquaintances as did his scientific genius. He was never loathe to criticize even the masters; as a child he re~ortedlvtore aDart Jules Verne's "From the Earth to the Moon" for its erroneous description of the diminishing effect of gravity as a spaceship leaves the earth. Among Pauli's early targets was his sister, Hertha. While he enioved . . teachine her about nature. her occasional outbursts bf defiance usualliprecipitated a violent exchange. Later, he doled out a decidedlv acidic opinion to the distinguished physicist, Paul ~ h r e n > e s t ~ ~
One of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics is the Pauli Exclusion Principle. Every student of introductory chemistry encounters the phenomenon that no two electrons in an atom have the same set of quantum numbers. Yet, it is theorized that each orbital contains two electrons. In 1925, when he was 25 vears old and onlv a vear out of eraduate school, ~ o l f ~ a n i ~ adeterminedthat uli not only can an orbital accommodate a maximum of two electrons but also that these paired electrons must have opposite spins. Wolfeane I'auli was the son of a distinguished chemistry profess& at the University of Vienna. His mother was journalist with a local newspaper. Ernst Mach, the noted philosopher and physicist, was Pauli's godfather. Pauli was baptized a Catholic, and we can assume that he attended strict Catholic schools since, during the Age of Modernism, he found it necessary to read Einstein's theory of relativity "secretlv." ~ f t e high r school, Pauli majored in theoretical physics a t the University of Munich. Among his classmates was Werner Heisenberg. His major professor was Arnold Sommerfeld, the foremost theoretical physicist of the time. When Pauli was only a sophomore, he was asked by Sommerfeld to write the entry on the theory of relativity for the prestigiousEncyklopaedie der mathematischen Wissenschaften. Pauli was awarded his doctorate in 1922, and he then began a series of investigations of the anomalous Zeeman effect. These studies resulted in the development of the exclusion principle, which was announced in 1925 in Zeitschrift fur Physik. Pauli concluded2
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Pauli was very rude. Ehrenfest told him quite frankly,"I like your publications better than I Like you," to which the young Pauli erushingly replied, "Strange, my feeling ahout you is just the opposite." Despite his unabashed moxie toward his peers and his unintelligible mumbling in the lecture hall, Pauli was profoundly respected by both his colleagues and his students. The ultimate flattery of caricature bestowed upon Pauli by his students, the so-called "Pauli effect," is a legend of twentiethcentury physics. Science historian Barbara Lovett Cline has 'The author wishes to thank Dr. Bern Dihner and Mr. Joseph H. Chillington of the Burndy History of Science Library in Norwalk, Connecticut,for their hospitality and eacdlent assistance. 2Gillispie. C. C. (Editor), "Dictionary of Scientific Biography," Charles Scribner's Sans, New York, 1974, X, p. 422. Cline, B. L., "The Questioners,"Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1965, pp. 142-143. Fine, L. W., "Chemistry," Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1978, p. 521. "Profiles in Chemistry" is a biographical lealure, highlighting the ~ m t r i b u t i o ndistinguished ~~f &mists in the contexts of their lives. The column is designed as a cuniculum enrichment instrument,allowing the Secondary school teacher to enhance thevitality of chemistry with the sense of scholarship and adventure shared by chemists throughout history. "Wofiles" is also a novel medium through which scholars of the history of chemistry can present their studies to the educational community in an immediately usable format.
QogerR. Fena received his BA from St. Michael's College in 1972, his MAT ham the University of Vermont in 1979, and is presently working an his CAS at Fairfield University. Mr. Festa has taught both high school chemistry and bioiagy. He is currently on the faculty of Brien McMahon High School m Norwalk, Connecticut. He is an active member of the ACS, New York Academy of Sciences. American Institute of Chemists, and American Association for me Advancement of Science. He Is chairman of the Hiqh School Chemistw Comm8Uee of the Western Connecticut Sect on v ce cnduman 01 its Eoeca!mon Cornmmee, and a memoer of 01skxec.1 re Bow0 He has pub m e d essays on rclence, n slary and educalmn n Coernunm ~-~ ,. Ths.Fanfield Chemest ano Tne Nor*aIh Md. and he has reviewed curricular materials for Science B w k s and Films. ~~
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Volume 58
Number 3
arch 1981
273
written extensively on the Pauli effect. She maintains that Pauli was incredibly clumsy and that this handicap was well understood and anticipated by his associates. "He approached the simplest mechanism with deep suspicion," she writes, "and it was rumored that before he could qualify for a driving license he first had to take one hundred lessons."" Legend has preserved a bevy of illustrations of the Pauli effect. Laboratory equipment would fall or crack when he was in the vicinity, and a serious explosion at the University of Gottingen occurred as the train transporting Pauli pulled into the local station. When he was expected a t a conference in Italy, some students wished to assure the demonstration of the Pauli effect when he walked into the conference room. They rigged a chandelier with a rope and pulley, intending to send it crashing to the floor as he entered. When Pauli appeared in the doorway and they released the chandelier, the
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rope slipped and wedged in one of the pulleys, leaving the fixture susoended near the ceiling. "Noting the elaborate apparatus which had failed its inventors, ~ a u l told i them gleefullv that thev had succeeded in demonstrating.a typical ~. ~ a u leffect."a i Cline concludes that the Pauli effect "could he understood as a compliment to its namesake. Theorists quite often are awkward in the laboratory, and ascribing such vast destructive Dowers to Pauli was one wav of savine that. as a theoretical " physicist, he was ~ u p e r b . " ~ Pauli was awarded the Nobel Prize for Phvsics in 1945. "for his discovery of the exclusion (Pauli) principie.""auli became seriously ill in December 1958, and he died within a few days.
