Tuesday, March 05, 2024

Copenhagen, a city of physics (plus, a song) // Copenhague, una ciudad de física (y un canción)

La versión en español está después de la versión en inglés.

In the past few centuries, Copenhagen has been the place for a lot of important science. It seemed a shame to me that there are no guided tours on the topic. Luckily, I found a self guided tour written by a science historian and it helped me learn quite a bit.

Physicists everywhere know the importance of Niels Bohr, who made some very important contributions to quantum mechanics at the start of the 20th century. Several famous physicists worked with him here, and in the '60s, his institute was renamed the Niels Bohr Institute. In fact, there is an element that is named for Copenhagen, hafnium, which was predicted by Bohr. (Hafnia is the Latin name for Copenhagen.)

(More below, with the pictures)

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Durante los últimos siglos, Copenhague fue el hogar de varios científicos importantes. Para mí, es una lástima que no haya visitas guiadas sobre este tema. Por suerte, encontré un itinerario que fue escrito por un historiador científico y me sirvió para aprender muchísimo. 

Todos los físicos saben lo importante que fue Niels Bohr, porque hizo descubrimientos importantes sobre la mecánica cuántica a principios del siglo XX. Varios físicos famosos trabajaron con él, y en la década de los años 60, su instituto fue nombrado el Instituto Niels Bohr. De hecho, hay un elemento que lleva el nombre de Copenhague, Hafnio, que fue predicho por Bohr. (Hafnia es el nombre latino de Copenhague).


I visited Niels Bohr´s childhood home. I think that he wrote his only experimental paper here, at the start of his university studies, after which he was solely a theorist.

Visité la casa de Niels Bohr, donde vivió cuando era niño. Creo que es posible que él escribiera su único papel experimental aquí, en los principios de su estudio en la universidad, después, solo trabajó con la teoría.

Although I didn't remember his name, Ole Christensen Rømer discovered that light has a finite speed and first measured it. His measurement was 2/3 of the accepted value, but it was a big deal in his day.

A pesar de no reconocer su nombre hace unos días, pero, en su día, Ole Christensen Rømer descubrió que la luz tenía una velocidad finita y la midió por primera vez. Su medida fue aproximada, ⅔ correcta en términos de fracción. Pero, fue un gran éxito durante su época.

This is the place where Hans Christian Ørsted discovered electromagnetism. Unfortunately, the original building does not exist anymore. Electromagnetism, was one of my worst subjects, but that's not its fault. And I do recognize that the relationship between electricity and magnetism is a mathematical marvel. Here is one of my favorite physics songs, about Ørsted and his socks. 

Aquí es el lugar donde Hans Christian Ørsted descubrió el electromagnetismo. Lamentablemente, el edificio original ya no existe. El electromagnetismo fue una de las materias más difíciles para mí –  aunque no sea culpa suya. Además, la relación entre la electricidad y el magnetismo es una maravilla matemática. Esta es una de mis canciones de física favoritas, sobre Ørsted y sus calcetines.

6 comments:

Sue said...

We were there but didn’t get the physics connection. Or maybe Jack knew but wen t over my head .Looks like a wonderful time to visit.

de-I said...

Was that song by Tom Lehrer? Only one I can think who would write a song about a physicist.

alexis said...

OMG that song is EVERYTHING. Pretty sure I may have built their website back in 1998 too. This is also such a great overview, we wished we could have come with you on the tour but we would have slowed you down I think!

Aditya J said...

I'll have to visit Copenhagen for sure now! I still have a massive collection of physics and math songs I got from you back at CSU :) including some earworm gems like the Kronecker delta song! Have to dig that out of my archives now

Renee Michelle Goertzen said...

de-I. I should have credited the authors, Marian McKenzie and Walter Smith! Tom Lehrer did great science songs, but it turns out there are many scientists who write songs in their spare time. I went through a phase in undergrad collecting them from obscure places on the Internet.

A's Mum said...

You're doing the grand tour with a difference