Quantum mechanics is formulated
In three years the theory acquires a full mathematical structure and loses determinism.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 2 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Industrial, Holocene
Heisenberg produces matrix mechanics in 1925 and Schrödinger wave mechanics in 1926; they turn out to be equivalent. Born interprets the wave function as a probability amplitude, and Heisenberg states the uncertainty principle in 1927. The theory predicts experimental results with extraordinary precision and describes reality as irreducibly probabilistic — which Einstein never accepted, and which remains philosophically unsettled a century later.