Known as one of the men who played a very fundamental and determining role in the development of quantum mechanics, Max Born was the friend of one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century in Albert Einstein. He was a brilliant man who, through his research and his inventions as a physicist, helped shape the world as we know it today. We take a closer look at his family, his inventions and his legacy as a renowned scientist.
Who was Max Born?
Max was born on December 11, 1882 in Breslau which is modern Wroclaw, Poland. At the time of his birth, Wroclaw was part of the Prussian province of Silesia, which was part of the German Empire. He came from a family of intellectually gifted people. His father was a Gustav-born anatomist and embryologist, as well as a professor of embryology at the University of Breslau.
His mother came from a line of Silesian industrialists; her name was Margarethe Gretchen nee Kauffmann. The Born were a Jewish family. Née had a sister, Kathe, born in 1886, two years before their mother died. Max was four years old when he died. He would later have another brother, Wolfgang, half-brother from his father’s second marriage to Bertha Lipstein.
Education and Inventions
Max attended the Konig Wilhelm gymnasium in Breslau. Thanks to the German education system which allowed free movement between colleges, Born was able to commute between the universities of Zürich, Heidelberg, Breslau and Göttingen. His thesis on the stability of wires and elastic bands was written at the University of Göttingen in 1906 under the supervision of mathematician Felix Klein.
Max Born was awarded a doctorate for his work the following year, 1907. After graduating from college, Born was drafted into the army to do his military service. He became part of the German army, assigned to the 2nd Dragonguard Corps “Empress of Alexandra of Russia”, based in Berlin. His time with the army was short-lived, he was discharged on medical parole after an asthma attack.
Higher Analysis, Astronomy, Physics and Matrix Calculus is one of the areas of science that touched Born’s intellectually fertile mind. He traveled to England to study physics at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. There he met the likes of JJ Thompson, Joseph Larmor and George Searle. Einstein’s article, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies apropos Special Relativity sparked interest in Born. He joined Minkowski, returned to Göttingen, and they began to research special relativity.
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They were making good progress before Minkowski died suddenly of appendicitis on January 12, 1909. Born was then able to publish his work and published a paper on The Theory of Rigid Bodies in the Kinematics of the Principle of Relativity. It was this piece that brought the concept of Born Rigidity.
Although he lived in a time of constant change and conflict on a global scale, Born was able to produce quality work that helped shape the world as we know it. Born with Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger and Max Planck, Born is considered one of the founders of quantum mechanics or physics.
The study of matter at the smallest of levels, from atomic to sub-atomic levels has imprints of Borns’ work. These fundamental advances led to the invention of objects such as lasers, modern electronics, the personal computer and MRI. If we categorized all of this under “Born & co inventions”, we would be right to some extent.
Max Born has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics thirty-four times. He finally received it in 1954 with the physicist Walther Bothe for his statistical interpretation of the wave function of quantum mechanics. Among his many accomplishments was the first mathematically precise statement of the first law of thermodynamics.
Small children
Born met his wife Hedwig Martha Ehrenberg in 1912. The two married a year later and the union was blessed with three children, two girls and a boy. His daughters were called Irene and Gritli, his son was called Gustav. Born and Hedwig’s relationship was rocky, and the couple typically spent time apart. Max Born’s grandchildren today are quite recognizable. Singer Oliva Newton-John is the daughter of Irene. Actor Max Born is also his grandson.
His great-grandchildren are not doing badly Singer and actress Chloe Rose Lattanzi is his great-granddaughter, as well as songwriter Brett Goldsmith and race car driver Emerson Newton-John.