Sunday, April 23, 2006
This Day in the History of Science
On this day in 1858 Max (Karl Ernst Ludwig) Planck, a German theoretical physicist was born. He studied at Munich and Berlin, under Helmholz, Clausius and Kirchoff and subsequently joined the faculty. He became professor of theoretical physics (1889-1926). His work on the law of thermodynamics and the distribution of radiation from a black body led him to abandon classical Newtonian principles and introduce the quantum theory (1900), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. This theory assumes that energy is not infinitely subdivisible, but ultimately exists as discrete amounts he called quanta (Latin, "how much"). Further, the energy carried by a quantum depends in direct proportion to the frequency of its source radiation. In other words, Planck is directly responsible for the paradigm shift in physics away from Newtonian and into what we now call quantum physics.
(h/t Today in Science History)
(h/t Today in Science History)
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:06 AM 
