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Schrödinger equation
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Schrödinger equation: the core of quantum mechanics
Diagram showing electron density shapes for atomic orbitals: A spherical s orbital at the top left, and three dumbbell-shaped p orbitals oriented along the x, y, and z axes below, each with labeled axes. Diagram comparing the hydrogen atom's energy levels using Bohr's model, the Schrodinger equation, and the Dirac equation, with horizontal lines representing quantized binding energies and labels for each energy state.
generalized Schrödinger equation
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Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.
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Schrödinger equation

physics
Also known as: Schrödinger wave equation
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Schrödinger equation, the fundamental equation of the science of submicroscopic phenomena known as quantum mechanics. The equation, developed (1926) by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger, has the same central importance to quantum mechanics as Newton’s laws of motion have for the large-scale phenomena of classical mechanics. Essentially a wave equation, the Schrödinger equation describes the form of the probability waves (or wave functions [see de Broglie wave]) that govern the motion of small particles, and...

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