Wigner Not the ‘W’ in WKB

Abstract

Stevenson replies: I thank John Knox and several others for pointing out my incorrect attribution of the W in WKB. The approximation predates their quantum mechanical application and was indeed to be found in the work of Harold Jeffreys. An interesting website, www.du.edu/~jcalvert/phys/wkb.htm, gives more historical details. The essential features of the so-called WKB or WKBJ approximation were known even earlier 1 1. Lord Rayleigh, Proc. R. Soc. London, series A, 86(586), 207 (1912), eq. 67 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1912.0014. but Lord Rayleigh already has too many things named after him.REFERENCESection:ChooseTop of pageREFERENCE <<1. Lord Rayleigh, Proc. R. Soc. London, series A, 86(586), 207 (1912), eq. 67 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1912.0014. Google ScholarCrossref© 2005 American Institute of Physics.