In 1924 a Frenchman named Louis de Broglie was thinking about particles of matter. He thought that if light can exist as both particles and waves, why couldn't atom particles also behave like waves? In a few equations derived from Einstein's famous equation, (E=mc ) he showed what matter waves would be like if they existed at all. (It was later proved that he was correct.)
In 1926 the Austrian physicist, Erwin Schrodinger had an interesting idea: Why not go all the way with particle waves and try to form a model of the atom on that basis? His theory worked kind of like harmonic theory for a violin string except that the vibrations traveled in circles.
