The physics Nobel Prize is the highest honor a physicist can win for scientific discoveries. Nobel Prizes include a medal, diploma, and monetary award. These Nobel laureates also receive worldwide acclaim and recognition.
Physics Nobel Prizes 1931 to 1935
The physics Nobel Prizes were not awarded in 1931 or 1934. Physics Nobel Prize winners for the other years between 1931 and 1935 were:
- 1932 Werner Heisenberg
- 1933 Erwin Schrödinger and Paul A.M. Dirac
- 1935 James Chadwick
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg won the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics for his formulation of quantum mechanics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is one of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics, is the most famous aspect of Heisenberg's formulation of quantum mechanics.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that there is a fundamental limit to the accuracy with which quantities can be measured. In the case of position and momentum, if the position of a particle is accurately known, then the particle's momentum cannot be known. Similarly if the particles momentum is accurately known, its position will be very inaccurately known. There is also a similar uncertainty principle for energy and time.
Heisenberg published this Nobel Prize winning work in 1925 when he was only 23 years old.
Erwin Schrödinger and Paul A.M. Dirac
Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac shared the 1933 Nobel Prize in physics for their independent formulations of quantum mechanics.
Schrödinger's formulation of quantum mechanics was the Schrödinger wave equation. De Broglie's wave particle duality principle stated that elementary particles also had a wave nature. Schrödinger derived the wave equation describing the wave nature of particles.
Dirac theoretically predicted the existence of antimatter. Using the wave equation Dirac predicted an elementary particle having the same properties as an electron but with a positive, rather than negative, electric charge. These particles, called positrons, have subsequently been observed experimentally. Positrons and other elementary particles with the opposite charge of normal particles having similar properties are called antimatter.
James Chadwick
James Chadwick won the 1935 Nobel Prize in physics for discovering the neutron. In 1920, Ernest Rutherford proposed that neutrons exist, but their lack of electric charge made them difficult to detect. In 1930 experiments showed that bombarding beryllium with alpha particles produced radiation. Physicists originally thought that this radiation was gamma rays, but the properties were not exactly right for gamma rays. Chadwick proved, in 1932, that this radiation was actually neutrons.
These Nobel Prize winners in physics made some of the most important contributions to development of quantum mechanics.
Further Reading
Physics Nobel Prize Winners 1926 to 1930
Physics Nobel Prize Winners 1936 to 1940
Paul A. Heckert - I have a Ph.D. in astrophysics, over 30 years experience teaching physics and astronomy, and over 60 published research articles.
