Importance of Schrodinger equation Louis de Broglie suggested that for microparticles like electro

Kiersten Hodge

Kiersten Hodge

Answered question

2022-05-08

Importance of Schrodinger equation
Louis de Broglie suggested that for microparticles like electrons, wave-like properties can be applied in order to explain some phenomena. Schrodinger wrote down an equation, a wave equation, describing these waves. What I do not understand is why is Schrodinger's contribution so important; if the concept of wave-like property of an electron was known already, then why writing a mere wave equation was an important step?

Answer & Explanation

Gia Schaefer

Gia Schaefer

Beginner2022-05-09Added 16 answers

There is a big difference between a wave equation and a wavefunction... What de Broglie postulated was that the probability distribution of various observable quantities of a particle can be described by a wavefunction (sometimes called a wave packet) at any fixed time. What Schrodinger did was to postulate a differential equation that described the evolution of the wavefunction as time progresses. So Schrodinger's equation vs. De Broglie matter-wave postulate is kind of like Newton's law vs. hard-sphere particle postulate. It is dynamics vs. internal properties.
Deshawn Cabrera

Deshawn Cabrera

Beginner2022-05-10Added 4 answers

Erwin Schrodinger developed wave mechanics on the basis of de Broglie's hypothesis of wave-particle duality. The concepts which de Broglie introduced to relate dynamical variables connected with corpuscular motion(e.g. momentum) with characteristics of the waves(e.g. wavelength) were extended by Schrodinger in a more general way to a quantum system to develop a wave equation for describing the motion of such system. In other words he gave birth a new branch of mechanics, quantum mechanics. He takes a linear normalized wave function in his equation by which we able to determine the probable value of physical quantities.He connect the time variation of wave function with the space variation. Schrodinger equation also obey the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. He introduce operator corresponding to any physical quantities in quantum mechanics. In a word Schrodinger plays a very important role in developing the branch quantum mechanics. That's why his contribution is so important to us.

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