2012-01-11Heisenberg principles and his Easter celebration |
In 1929 Werner Heisenberg took a trip to the USA to give lectures in Boston and Chicago about his newly created quantum mechanics theory. He was invited by Prof. Vallerte. Heisenberg’s personal letters reveal his impressions of the trip. In a letter to his parents, to whom he was writing almost every week, he wrote: “For one, it turned out that the professor whose guest I was last night, took us to a concert featuring Beethoven's 1st symphony and Beethoven's 9th symphony. You can imagine how much I savored this, after weeks of not even being able to play myself. All day today the melodies from it have been whirling around in my head. Today the weather was perfect, the air warm and the sky without a cloud.”
Heisenberg did not always find the realities of the big city life too pleasant. His aspirations were to be with Nature. He wrote: “So I said to my host that today I wanted to go on a walk in the woods where no smell of gasoline and no car horn would intrude. Such a request is considered rather crazy here, but they do not hold it against someone German. Because the train connections were rather poor, this host, Prof. Vallerte, took me in his car, and went to visit friends in a neighboring suburb. In the middle of a large wooded area, I declared I now wanted to get out, which he obliged, baffeled. I would find my way home on my own.” Heisenberg then spent some time in the woods and was able to find his way home. He wrote: “And I found a few foot paths in the desired direction and arrived at the wood’s edge with the first stars. On the road I hitchhiked as is customary here, taking the first ride offered, and reached with some detours the house at about half past eight. This was my Easter Sunday celebration.”
Heisenberg principles and his Easter celebration
