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Scientific Laws are based on
observations or else they result from theoretical assumptions concerning the
particular phenomenon. So called classical physics was founded on these
principles. Light was the major scientific debate in 1700s. Isaac Newton in 1704
postulated that light is made of particles. Christiaan Huygens, by contrast,
declared that light consists of waves. Newton’s view of light was accepted
until the English Physicist Thomas Young was able to prove the opposite. By
doing some experiments, Thomas Young was able to prove that light spreads out
in the similar ways as the disturbance in water in the form of waves.
Max Planck was born in the
Northern German City of Kiel in 1858. In 1874 he went to Munich University to
study Physics. One of his teacher in
Munich University tried to dissuade him that there is nothing left to discover
in this field. Max Planck after three years transferred to another university
in Berlin. He went there to attend lectures by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav
Kirchhoff, two of the leading physicists of the age. Planck was especially
interested in thermodynamics. In late 19 century, electric lighting was
becoming a mass market. In order to develop the high quality and standard of
light bulb, physicists were interested in the laws by which heated bodies emitted
radiation in the form of heat and light.
Classical physics assumed that
as the body gets hotter, its radiation in the form of heat, light must also
increase, but closer examination revealed that this assumption was wrong or
inadequate. If steel is heated it glows in different colors according to the
different temperatures. According to the notion of classical physics, the steel
should emit more and more light energy as its temperature increases until
finally it starts emitting ultraviolet radiation, which is invisible to the
human eye. In other words steel should become invisible. This assumption of
classical physics was not confirmed experimentally and steel always remained
visible. Planck was one of the many scientists who tried to explain this
radiation. He spent 5 years in explaining the phenomenon using classical
physics, but he found no satisfactory solution. He then assumed that the
radiation was not emitted continuously, but in the form of discrete packets
known as quanta. Planck’s law states that the radiation energy is the product
of constant “h” and the frequency of the radiation. Planck was a theoretical
physicist, so he relied on the results obtain by experimentally in order to
test his theory. Experimentalist came up with the figure which was quite small
for the constant “h”. Planck later on in December 1900 announced his law of
radiation referring to the constant that was later named as Planck’s constant
in his honor. This was the birthday of quantum physics and new age of science. After
the First World War, Planck was awarded Nobel Prize for his discovery of energy
quanta.
Albert Einstein and Max Planck
were good friends. In 1905 Einstein used Planck’s Laws to explain the
photoelectric effect. He was the first to interpret and apply the Planck’s
constant correctly. Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Photoelectric effect. Einstein’s
discovery showed that the light acted both as a wave and a particle. In 1913,
Niels Bohr used what had recently been discovered about energy by Max Planck
and proposed his planetary model of the atom. Bohr’s explanation meant that the
quantum theory has finally established its credentials. Max Planck laid the
foundation stone for the new kind of physics underpin by Albert Einstein and
Neils Bohr. It was their research that ultimately created the basics for the
developments of quantum physics, which explain the processes in atoms and even
smaller particles. We owe many achievements of modern everyday life to quantum
theory. For example computer, laser and its different application. Today’s
medical technology is a result of this quantum theory. If you look around right
now then you must find something that is a result of quantum theory within the
room, even the computer or mobile you are using to read this article is a
result of quantum theory.
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