Alec Sauers and Corrina Kissel Max Planck Alec Sauers and Corrina Kissel

Who was Max Planck? He was born in Kiel, Germany on April 23, 1858 and died on October 4, 1947. He became interested in the field of physics at age 17 after Hermann Muller taught him astronomy, mechanics, and mathematics. Later, he won a Nobel Prize for his work in 1919.

What did he do? His main focus was in the field of thermodynamics. He studied energy and how electrons absorbed it.

Planck’s Theory The laws of physics stated that if a box’s temperature was raised in a certain way that no light could escape, it would produce an infinite amount of ultraviolet radiation. However, when this theory was tested in real life, no such thing happened. Instead, the box only emitted various colors- red, blue, and white- but nothing in an infinite amount. The laws merely described what was going on outside the box, not what happened on the inside of the heated box.

Planck’s Theory Cont. Planck challenged what the laws of physics stated about the box, and tried a mathematical trick to discover the real science behind it. Instead of assuming light traveled in one continuous wave, he proposed that perhaps the light existed in specific amounts. With this change, the equations regarding the light’s energy were correct, and they correctly described the box’s radiation.

Planck’s Theory Cont. From this discovery, other scientists were able to make their own contributions to the theory: Albert Einstein used Planck’s theory to determine that light can be thought of as discrete particles, just like electrons and protons. Physicist Gilbert Lewis named these particles “photons”.

Planck’s Constant He created the formula E=hv. This made him the inventor of the constant h. This equation shows the proportionality constant (h) between energy (E) and the frequency (v) of its associated electromagnetic wave. This was named the Quantum Theory.

Planck’s Quantum Theory He said that energy of light is proportional to the frequency This idea said that particles contained lumps of energy in certain sizes.

What does this theory look like?

Why is the Quantum Theory Useful?

Sources http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1918/planck-bio.html http://www.pbs.org/transistor/science/info/quantum.html http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C04/C04Links/www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/q/q021000030f.html http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Max_Planck_Originator_of_quantum_theory