Pauli's Exclusion Principle

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2017

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958), whose Exclusion Principle is one of the key ideas in quantum mechanics. A brilliant physicist, at 21 Pauli wrote a review of Einstein's theory of general relativity and that review is still a standard work of reference today. The Pauli Exclusion Principle proposes that no two electrons in an atom can be at the same time in the same state or configuration, and it helps explain a wide range of phenomena such as the electron shell structure of atoms. Pauli went on to postulate the existence of the neutrino, which was confirmed in his lifetime. Following further development of his exclusion principle, Pauli was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945 for his 'decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature'. He also had a long correspondence with Jung, and a reputation for accidentally breaking experimental equipment which was dubbed The Pauli Effect. With Frank Close Fellow Emeritus at Exeter College, University of Oxford Michela Massimi Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Edinburgh and Graham Farmelo Bye-Fellow of Churchill College, University of Cambridge Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:42.0	I hope you enjoy the programs.
0:44.0	Hello in 1925 Wolfgang Pauli made a decisive contribution to atomic theory
0:49.8	through his discovery of a new and fundamental law of nature, the exclusion principle, or as it became
0:55.3	known, the powerly principle.
0:57.8	It asserts that no two electrons in an atom can be at the same time in the same state or configuration.
1:04.5	It was groundbreaking as it explained a huge range of phenomena from the chemical behavior of
1:09.2	the elements to why matter is stable and for this you won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1945.
1:15.6	Paly astonished and intrigued his peers.
1:18.2	He was also correctly predicted the existence of the utrino and was called the conscience of physics.
1:24.3	Yet he was fascinated by mysticism, alchemy and dreams which he explored with the psychinalist
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