Ian+-+post+on+Copenhagen

The movie Copenhagen is about Heisenberg’s visit to Niels Bohr during world war two. It questions why Heisenberg made this visit to Bohr. This movie is mostly fiction but it does show some insight to the problems that were going on at the time, and what may have been discussed. It also tells interesting facts about the Uncertainty Principle and Complementarity. Heisenberg makes an interesting explanation on uncertainty during the movie where he uses Margret and Niels Bohr using a flashlight to chase Niels around in the dark having Margret act as the nucleus. I found this a very interesting way to describe this and it helps show one part of science that they discovered.

During their walk Bohr and Heisenberg might have talked about how the Nazi’s and Heisenberg were working on a nuclear reactor for practical use. In the movie there are flashbacks to this conversation over and over again till it is easier to understand. This reminds me of the way that Bohr rewrites his drafts over again till he gets it perfect. This makes Bohr mad because he assumes that the Nazi’s are trying to make an atomic bomb to match the United States effort to do the same. Bohr wants no part in helping Germany win the war so he refuses to help Heisenberg. Later in the movie they say that if Bohr had helped Heisenberg with the atomic project Germany would have succeeded in making the bomb. Heisenberg also attempts to say that he wasn’t trying to make a bomb and it is found that the atomic reactor that he mad was not even safe.

I found this movie very interesting because it showed how cultures affected old friendships and how different sciences were mad during different times such as bombs during war and things like the Uncertainty Principle during times of peace