Wolfgang Ketterle

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

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Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/wolfgang-ketterle

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Wolfgang Ketterle born?October 21, 1957
2. Where was Wolfgang Ketterle born?Germany
3. How big is Wolfgang Ketterle?Experimental atomic physics, focusing on ultra-cold atoms and quantum gases
4. Who discovered Wolfgang Ketterle?Experimental realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in 1995
5. What is the affiliation?Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
6. What did Wolfgang Ketterle discover?He created the first Bose‑Einstein condensate, a new state of matter where atoms act as one big quantum wave.

Absolute Zero: The theoretical temperature at which all molecular motion ceases, approximately -273.15 degrees Celsius.
Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC): A state of matter formed by cooling bosons to temperatures very close to absolute zero, exhibiting quantum mechanical properties on a macroscopic scale.
Laser Cooling: A technique using lasers to slow down atoms by reducing their kinetic energy, thereby lowering their temperature.
Evaporative Cooling: A method of cooling a trapped gas by removing the most energetic particles, lowering the average energy of the remaining ones.