Editing Max Born (section)

==Early life==
Max Born was born on 11 December 1882 in Breslau (now [[Wrocław]], Poland), which at the time of Born's birth was part of the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] [[Province of Silesia]] in the [[German Empire]], to a family of [[Jewish]] descent.{{sfn|Born|2002}} He was one of two children born to [[Gustav Jacob Born|Gustav Born]], an [[anatomist]] and [[embryologist]], who was a professor of embryology at the [[University of Breslau]],{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|p=17}} and his wife Margarethe Gretchen (née Kauffmann) from a Silesian family of industrialists. She died when Max was four years old, on 29 August 1886.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=5–7}} Max had a sister, Käthe, who was born in 1884, and a half-brother, Wolfgang, from his father's second marriage, to Bertha Lipstein. Wolfgang later became Professor of Art History at the [[City College of New York]].{{sfn|Born|2002|p=231}}

Initially educated at the König-Wilhelm-[[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] in Breslau, Born entered the University of Breslau in 1901. The German university system allowed students to move easily from one university to another, so he spent summer semesters at [[Heidelberg University]] in 1902 and the [[University of Zurich]] in 1903. Fellow students at Breslau, [[Otto Toeplitz]] and [[Ernst Hellinger]], told Born about the [[University of Göttingen]],{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=16–18}} and Born went there in April 1904. At Göttingen he found three renowned mathematicians: [[Felix Klein]], [[David Hilbert]] and [[Hermann Minkowski]]. Very soon after his arrival, Born formed close ties to the latter two men.  From the first class he took with Hilbert, Hilbert identified Born as having exceptional abilities and selected him as the lecture scribe, whose function was to write up the class notes for the students' mathematics reading room at the University of Göttingen. Being class scribe put Born into regular, invaluable contact with Hilbert.  Hilbert became Born's mentor after selecting him to be the first to hold the unpaid, semi-official position of assistant. Born's introduction to Minkowski came through Born's stepmother, Bertha, as she knew Minkowski from dancing classes in [[Königsberg]].  The introduction netted Born invitations to the Minkowski household for Sunday dinners.  In addition, while performing his duties as scribe and assistant, Born often saw Minkowski at Hilbert's house.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=22–28}}<ref>{{citation |url=http://do.nw.schule.de/mbr/schule/maxbornengl.htm |title=Max Born's Life |publisher=Max Born Realschule |access-date=5 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113202504/http://do.nw.schule.de/mbr/schule/maxbornengl.htm |archive-date=13 November 2013  }}</ref>

Born's relationship with Klein was more problematic. Born attended a seminar conducted by Klein and professors of [[applied mathematics]], [[Carl Runge]] and [[Ludwig Prandtl]], on the subject of [[Elasticity of a function|elasticity]]. Although not particularly interested in the subject, Born was obliged to present a paper. He presented one in which, taking the simple case of a curved wire with both ends fixed, he used Hilbert's [[calculus of variations]] to determine the configuration that would minimise [[potential energy]] and therefore be the most stable. Klein was impressed, and invited Born to submit a thesis on the subject of "Stability of Elastica in a Plane and Space" – a subject near and dear to Klein – which Klein had arranged to be the subject for the prestigious annual Philosophy Faculty Prize offered by the university. Entries could also qualify as doctoral dissertations. Born responded by turning down the offer, as applied mathematics was not his preferred area of study. Klein was greatly offended.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Kemmer|Schlapp|1971|pp=18–19}}

Klein had the power to make or break academic careers, so Born felt compelled to atone by submitting an entry for the prize. Because Klein refused to supervise him, Born arranged for Carl Runge to be his supervisor. [[Woldemar Voigt]] and [[Karl Schwarzschild]] became his other examiners. Starting from his paper, Born developed the equations for the stability conditions. As he became more interested in the topic, he had an apparatus constructed that could test his predictions experimentally. On 13 June 1906, the [[Rector (academia)|rector]] announced that Born had won the prize. A month later, he passed his [[oral examination]] and was awarded his [[PhD]] in mathematics ''[[magna cum laude]]''.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=33–36}}

On graduation, Born was obliged to perform his military service, which he had deferred while a student. He found himself drafted into the [[German Army (German Empire)|German army]], and posted to the 2nd Guards Dragoons "Empress Alexandra of Russia", which was stationed in [[Berlin]]. His service was brief, as he was discharged early after an [[asthma]] attack in January 1907. He then travelled to England, where he was admitted to [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], and studied physics for six months at the [[Cavendish Laboratory]] under [[J. J. Thomson]], [[George Frederick Charles Searle|George Searle]] and [[Joseph Larmor]]. After Born returned to Germany, the Army re-inducted him, and he served with the elite [[1st (Silesian) Life Cuirassiers "Great Elector"]] until he was again medically discharged after just six weeks' service. He then returned to Breslau, where he worked under the supervision of [[Otto Lummer]] and [[Ernst Pringsheim Sr.|Ernst Pringsheim]], hoping to do his [[habilitation]] in physics. A minor accident involving Born's [[black body]] experiment, a ruptured cooling water hose, and a flooded laboratory, led to Lummer telling him that he would never become a physicist.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=36–41}}

In 1905, [[Albert Einstein]] published his paper ''On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies'' about [[special relativity]]. Born was intrigued, and began researching the subject. He was devastated to discover that Minkowski was also researching special relativity along the same lines, but when he wrote to Minkowski about his results, Minkowski asked him to return to Göttingen and do his habilitation there. Born accepted. Toeplitz helped Born brush up on his [[matrix algebra]] so he could work with the four-dimensional [[Minkowski space]] [[Matrix (mathematics)|matrices]] used in the latter's project to reconcile relativity with [[electrodynamics]]. Born and Minkowski got along well, and their work made good progress, but Minkowski died suddenly of [[appendicitis]] on 12 January 1909. The mathematics students had Born speak on their behalf at the funeral.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=42–43}}

A few weeks later, Born attempted to present their results at a meeting of the Göttingen Mathematics Society. He did not get far before he was publicly challenged by Klein and [[Max Abraham]], who rejected relativity, forcing him to terminate the lecture. However, Hilbert and Runge were interested in Born's work, and, after some discussion with Born, they became convinced of the veracity of his results and persuaded him to give the lecture again. This time he was not interrupted, and Voigt offered to sponsor Born's habilitation thesis.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=45–49}} Born subsequently published his talk as an article on "The Theory of the Rigid Electron in the Kinematics of the Principle of Relativity" ({{langx|de|Die Theorie des starren Elektrons in der Kinematik des Relativitätsprinzips}}),<ref name="dietheorie">{{Cite journal | last1 = Born | first1 = M. | title = Die Theorie des starren Elektrons in der Kinematik des Relativitätsprinzips | doi = 10.1002/andp.19093351102 | journal = Annalen der Physik | volume = 335 | issue = 11 | pages = 1–56 | year = 1909 |bibcode = 1909AnP...335....1B | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1424151 }}</ref> which introduced the concept of [[Born rigidity]]. On 23 October Born presented his habilitation lecture on the [[Thomson model]] of the atom.{{sfn|Greenspan|2005|pp=45–49}}