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Arnold Sommerfeld

Arnold Sommerfeld

1868 CE1951 CE · Königsberg

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (German: [ˈaʁnɔlt ˈzɔmɐˌfɛlt]; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in both atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and mentored many students for the new era of theoretical physics. Sommerfeld served as doctoral advisor and postdoctoral advisor to seven Nobel Prize winners and supervised at least 30 other famous physicists and chemists. Sommerfeld introduced the second quantum number, azimuthal quantum number, and the third quantum number, magnetic quantum number. He also introduced the fine-structure constant and pioneered X-ray wave theory.

Adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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Stop 1 of 4Born

KönigsbergקעניגסבערגEast Prussia

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About Königsberg

Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia), then the capital of East Prussia, had a Jewish community of note and was an important center of Hebrew printing in the modern era. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, founder of the Mussar movement, spent his final years working to strengthen Orthodox Jewish life in Germany and Prussia and died in Königsberg in 1883.

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Related figuresErwin SchrödingerSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.