Talk:Erwin Schrödinger/Archive 1

Old discussions
i am really confused with the wording "his known preference". What does that mean? At first i thought he might have been a Jew and so i scrolled back--no where mentions that! Is he homosexual? Somebody please tell me.

He wasn't Jewish or homosexual as far as I know, he did live in a menage a trois, maybe that's what's refered too, I hope to do some work on this entry soon to note that. Notjim 16:01, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

In fact, his known preference means that it was known his disliked the Nazis. I have now added to this space, but it needs much more work. Notjim 23:40, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I have removed phrase "although he was Catholic" in the sentence explaining why he left Germany This phrase suggested, that all Catholic are generaly anti-semits - which is rather NPOV. I rather think that he dislikes nazis because he was deeply christian and couldn't stand what was going on at that time in Germany Polimerek 09:11, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Austrian vs. Irish
Someone added Schrodinger to the category of Irish Scientists, and he's since been moved to the category of Austrian scientists.

Whilst he was born in Austria, he held an Irish passport and did much of his work in Dublin. Should he hence be put in both categories?

Kiand 08:35, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Although it is an exaggeration to say he did much of his work in Dublin, I think he should be in both, the Irish scientist category explicitely states that it is intended as a category of Irish born scientists and scientists who worked in Ireland. Talking about nationality and scientists is always odd and talking about nationality and the Irish is sometimes problematic, for example, Hamilton was Irish born and worked in Ireland but would possibly have thought of himself as British and again, many Irish born scientists in the C19 worked in England and so can quite sensibly be categorised as both British scientists and Irish scientists. Replacing Irish scientists with Austrian scientists seems like a bad thing to do, it removes a piece of information.

Notjim 16:01, 8 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't he be moved to Category:Irish physicists, then? He was a physicist, after all. --Fibonacci 06:33, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

Alexander Lindemann? Or should it be Frederick Lindemann?
Under Personal life there is a redlink to "Alexander Lindemann, the head of physics at Oxford University". I was wondering whether or not that should be Frederick Lindemann instead. Frederick Lindemann was at that time professor of experimental philosophy at Oxford University and director of the Clarendon Laboratory, and I know that he was instrumental in getting Jewish scientists out of Nazi Germany. Can somebody clarify this issue? JdH 08:44, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Religion
his religion is Vedantic Hinduism what he actually believed in Buddhist143
 * We need you to cite a source for that. Pfalstad 04:46, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know if that was his actual religion, or if he even had one - there would need to be a source indeed - but he was certainly interested in Vedantic thought in the long term. It's apparently one of the shaping influences of his book What is Life?  I have not read the book myself, but it's looking increasingly good on the "Someday When There's Time" list. - 69.64.200.2 14:50, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

he definitely was not roman catholic, as it was cited in the article incorrectly.

Yeah he's definitely not Catholic, In A life of Erwin Schrödinger By Walter John Moore it states that he was an atheist. While he may have identified closely with eastern culture I don't think he believed in Vedantic Hinduism, but it's worth looking into.Spacew00t (talk) 02:27, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Could any one please give the correct phonetic spelling of his name? How is it pronounced? Is it Shrodinjer or Shrowinjer? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 59.152.88.4 (talk • contribs).


 * I always heard Shray-dinger in college, although that is not the correct Austrian pronunciation. If you go here  and scroll down to the dictionary, you can click on the little speaker to here it pronounced.  They say Shrow-dinger.  The correct way is a cross between Shray and Shrow, I think.  Pfalstad 17:43, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

It would be really nice if someone who speaks German could upload an .ogg file here. Jermor 18:01, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

It's Shroo-dinger. I'll see if I can upload an .ogg. Daqenue 18:32, 20 July 2007 (UTC) none of these really quite have it. it's difficult to write the o-umlaut (ö) sound in english phonemes.and then, i don't rteaaly know the österreichisch pronounciation. they talk funny.Toyokuni3 (talk) 16:24, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Penchant for women?
I think the just-removed section on Schrödinger's relationships with two women should not be introduced with the POV phrase "penchant for women," but that otherwise the story is pretty much as found in the book Schrödinger: Life and Thought. So, clean it up, put it back, and cite it. Dicklyon 00:43, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Don't these women have names? "Schrödinger's wife", "March's wife", what is this, the Bible? &mdash;Toby Bartels 10:50, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

From Simon Masters Re:  Manjit Kumar's book "Quantum" (2009) page 201 re-iterates the polyamory and cites Born quoted in Heisenburg's book "Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations" (1971)



...after fleeing Nazi Germany, he first scandalised Oxford and then Dublin when he set up home with his wife and yet another mistress under the same roof.

'His private life seemed strange to bourgeois people like ourselves', Born wrote some years after Schrodingers death in 1961. 'But all this does not matter. He was a most lovable person, independent, amusing, temperamental, kind and generous...'

 Sorry Toby, no names available there...I wonder what is in the archives at Oxford? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.125.85.129 (talk) 22:26, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

DNA?
Except in the sense that all early molecular biologists were influenced by his book (as discussed in the article), how does he get included in the structure of the double helix template? He could equally well have been included as the precursor to several thousand other topics. DGG 04:15, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

Formatting
There appears to be something rather wrong with the placement of the double helix box. I wouldn't know the first thing about fixing it, but its position in the article appears to be relative to the size of the window one uses to view the article. Glooper 05:37, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
 * You're right - very strange. I've switched to the "footer" version (less visible, but much less distracting in this case). -- MarcoTolo 03:08, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

The "Edit" links for early years and middle years appear to be displaced by the side boxes on the right hand side of the page. This isn't really a major problem, but if anyone knows how to fix it relatively quickly without a fuss, that would be nice. Glooper (talk) 06:24, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

Someone have deleted the biography part
I was reading the article, and I've discovered someone have deleted the biography part. Please, could someone bring it back? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.122.167.111 (talk • contribs)


 * I've looked several months back in the history and don't see any major removals. Maybe you can look there and find what you're talking about and point it out, in which case I'd be happy to help.  And put four tildes after your message to insert an automatic signature. Dicklyon 21:01, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Ah, I see, you're probably referring to the stray header "Biography". I just took it out. Dicklyon 21:04, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

Possible copyright violation
A Google search that pointed to both this page and one on the St. Andrews website indicates that at least parts of this article may have been inappropriately copied. Consider the following paragraph from the local article:


 * In the spring of 1934 Schrödinger was invited to lecture at Princeton University and while there he was made an offer of a permanent position. On his return to Oxford he negotiated about salary and pension conditions at Princeton but in the end he did not accept. It is thought that the fact that he wished to live at Princeton with Anny and Hilde both sharing the upbringing of his child was not found acceptable. The fact that Schrödinger openly had two wives, even if one of them was married to another man, was not well received in Oxford either. Nevertheless, his daughter Ruth Georgie Erica was born there on 30 May 1934.

as compared to this paragraph from the St. Andrews site:


 * In the spring of 1934 Schrödinger was invited to lecture at Princeton and while there he was made an offer of a permanent position. On his return to Oxford he negotiated about salary and pension conditions at Princeton but in the end he did not accept. It is thought that the fact that he wished to live at Princeton with Anny and Hilde both sharing the upbringing of his child was not found acceptable. The fact that Schrödinger openly had two wives, even if one of them was married to another man, did not go down too well in Oxford either, but his daughter Ruth Georgie Erica was born there on 30 May 1934.

Those involved with the article may want to make appropriate changes.--Steuard 18:54, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * As the St. Andrews' page was last modified September 3rd, 2007, do we know who copied whom? (Cf. an August version of this article.) Ben Hocking (talk 18:56, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Apparently, it was added on 10 August 2006. Since the older version is closer to the St. Andrews' version than the newer version, I would suggest that it is likely that the plagiarism probably happened here and not there. Ben Hocking (talk 19:06, 31 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Actually, both this article and the St. Andrews page have text that is disturbingly similar to this tripod page, which may well be copied from some other source. I suspect that the tripod page is the original source for both this article and the St. Andrews site, as it includes details (Fritz London's name, for example) left out of the other versions, but at this point, plagiarism fatigue has set in, and I don't care enough to try to chase down who copied what from who. Whatever the original source, it's pretty clearly inappropriate. Orzelc (talk) 12:32, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Color Cube
Approximately 20 years ago, I recall seeing a single reference that attributed the "color cube" of light (r g b) and pigment (c m y) plus black (k) and white (w) to Schroedinger. If my recollection is correct, perhaps a German-speaking editor could find that reference and attribute the concept to Schroedinger. It survives as being very important for the trichromic eye, color printing, color display monitors, pseudocoloring schemes, etc., because it is a unifying and easily grasped graphical concept. 50MWdoug (talk) 07:44, 31 March 2008 (UTC) I have used the term "Schroedinger cube" here: http://www.youvan.com/Examples/Example%205.%20Random%20Planes%20Passing%20Through%20a%20Schroedinger%20Cube.htm, but this is not authoritative. 50MWdoug (talk) 08:05, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

But what I want to know is...
...did he own a cat?&mdash; Chowbok  ☠  04:13, 5 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Hmmm. I'd say...probably :) RatSplat ooo 13:07, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

He didn't own a cat, he said he hated cats! I think one of his quotes said that they are "dirty little b****rds"

Adding Reference Citation Challenge
Apologies to all - had some trouble adding the reference to Schrodinger's seminal "Quantisierung als Eigenwertproblem" paper. Adding the reference was straightforward with the template. However, trying to add in the ref to the online version of the document (admittedly after the fact) was harder than I anticipated.

Personally, I think it would be helpful if, when previewing a reference edit, you could also preview the reference itself. I had to save changes blind a few times before I got it the way it should be. Having said that, it's partly my newby-ness also, as I learned to use the CS1 errors help page after fumbling around for a bit!

Is there a "Newby Tutorial" or even a "User's Manual" on Wikipedia that I should use? Found templates, found help for AFTER I made a mistake, DIDN'T find clear instructions how to do what needed to be done.

This effort was triggered by a "Citation Needed" tag which I decided to address. Glad to help, pretty adventurous, but I feel bad that I was so sloppy in the effort.

Big Lew 22:38, 7 April 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lew Sheen (talk • contribs)


 * Just found the tutorial. Boy, do I feel dumb! I don't always do things backward...

Big Lew 22:54, 7 April 2014 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Lew Sheen (talk • contribs)

Back to the Future
There should be a mention that the cat in the movie "Back to the Future" is named Schrödinger. QuentinUK (talk) 16:33, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Bad writing
"his relations with his wife Anny were good," Seriously, is this a fifth grade gossip column? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.165.123 (talk) 04:06, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Legend about the episode of the discovery of Schrödinger's equation
I heard from my high school physics teacher that Schrödinger and his best friend regularly swapped their wives. One time when Schrödinger was having sex with his best friend's wife, he got an insight on his equation. He interrupted sex to write down his insight, and then went back to sex. Later, his written down insight became the foundation for Schrödinger's equation. Is there any evidence that this is true? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nnnu (talk • contribs) 06:35, 10 August 2012 (UTC)    There Is another story that Hilbert once told him that the only time he ever used matrices was to fit boundary conditions to differential equations. WIth respect to Heieenberg's recently published paper on quantum matrix mechanics, Hilbert purportedly told him to "Look for the differential equation!"

Some copy-paste needs rewriting
Some of the material added by Thepalerider2012 is cut and pasted, though he did provide the reference. It needs rewriting to avoid copyright violation. Reference: StarryGrandma (talk) 19:59, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
 * I am removing the copied material. This material has been an issue before, see here in the archive. Please add properly written and referenced material to fill in these gaps. Thanks. StarryGrandma (talk) 19:57, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

"thougt-experiment" running one h short in "thought". Is in section "Creation of wave mechanics." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.25.244.82 (talk) 20:06, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Pronunciation of Schrödinger's name
Please remove "pron.: /ˈʃroʊdɪŋər/" from the article. There is only one correct way to pronounce Erwin Schrödinger's name and it is "German: [ˈɛʁviːn ˈʃʁøːdɪŋɐ]". Anything else is simply ignorance toward the pronunciation of a person's name. I do not think Wikipedia should endorse such ignorance, but instead educate about the correct one. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.233.174.49 (talk) 11:41, 18 May 2013 (UTC) i agree with you!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 125.164.156.12 (talk) 05:44, 12 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Nonsense. We reflect reality on WP, not fantasies about what should be.  — kwami (talk) 08:13, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Surely names are different from other words - there is in general no standard of correctness for words other that the descriptive fact about what people say. In the case of names we can appeal to how the person themselves pronounced it. So ˈʃʁøːdɪŋɐ  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.216.132.184 (talk) 07:55, 19 September 2013 (UTC)
 * My name is Matt. If I tell you it's pronounced with a hard 'K', will that make it so? Canine virtuoso (talk) 00:54, 20 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Much of the time, various proper nouns are pronounced differently in English than they are in their native languages. At other times, English-speaking people make an effort to at least come close to the native pronunciation. The IPA info currently in the lede honors that reality, as far as I can tell, and respects Wikipedia's tendency to avoid prescriptiveness. (Of course, I'm oversimplifying: native speakers of English are far from uniform in their pronunciation of common English words, let alone German names.) Rivertorch (talk) 07:45, 20 December 2013 (UTC)


 * Matt (with a K). Why yes, Matt, it will. In fact, a failure to respect the pronunciation of the person could be taken as creating a "hostile environment" and possibly subject the perp to both criminal and civil penalties. Its kinda strange you don't know this. It is neither smart nor correct to claim that since many are ignorant, that Wikipedia has to mirror their ignorance. In my opinion, the pronunciation closest to the original should be first, and common alternatives could also be included. Why should we have to choose only one to include here? There is, of course, a problem in determining which of alternative(s) to include, if there is more than one. (I'm sure you can also find (rare) examples of the individual pronouncing his/her name differently over time or to different audiences (languages, countries).) Is it Ine-stine or Aine-Schtine? (sorry, I don't/can't do IPA). Of course, another problem is that the "correct" pronunciation may not be within the range of the speaker's repertoire, this is common with 'foreign' names. (Several Japanese companies I've worked with have instructed their executives to adopt and use an English name when dealing with Americans, this also occurs with Chinese, to my knowledge.)216.96.79.108 (talk) 21:43, 24 September 2015 (UTC)

Edit Request
Would someone be so kind as to include Mr. Schrödinger's date of birth (i.e. "birthday") being celebrated with a Google doodle? Perhaps under the "Legacy" section would be appropriate?

Suggested Reference(s):

(and/or) 98.70.83.2 (talk) 07:13, 12 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes check.svg Done, thank you. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 12:13, 25 August 2013 (UTC)

Edit Request
In the opening paragraph in the part about "... various fields of physics:", "color theory" is listed but it links to the wiki page for visual color theory. I'm fairly certain the link should be to "Quantum chromodynamics".

Please change the landing page for "color theory" in the first paragraph from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_theory" to "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_chromodynamics".

Thanks. (I hope I did this correctly...) Phestan (talk) 04:06, 13 August 2013 (UTC)


 * No, it is the proper link. 64.106.62.45 (talk) 16:37, 13 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now:. The wording in the Color section suggests that the current link is appropriate, and the article doesn't mention quantum chromodynamics. If there's something we're missing, please reopen this request and briefly specify what it is (preferably in layman's terms that non-scientists such as I might understand). Rivertorch (talk) 18:54, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Schrodinger died before there was such a things as Quantum Chromodynamics. "Color" theory refers to his interest in color vision, which during his life was still a subject in need of considerable research. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.223.130.32 (talk) 21:36, 2 July 2017 (UTC)

Nobel Prize
'Nobel Prize' should be clickable. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.255.175.15 (talk) 11:27, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Anny's death
In your article under "Personal Life," you state in the text that Anny died in 1965 but elsewhere you say she died the same year he died, 1961. (71.92.43.80 (talk) 02:39, 13 August 2013 (UTC))


 * If you are talking about in the infobox where it says "Spouse - Annemarie Bertel (1920–61)", those are the years the two were married. -- Racer X11 Talk to me Stalk me  03:24, 13 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Schrodinger had a rather unconventional love life for his time; a wife and mistress in a three-some. 86.149.134.79 (talk) 01:21, 17 July 2015 (UTC)