There is no better way to learn Quantum Physics than through the words of the very people who developed the important concepts in Quantum Physics. This is the pedagogy at the heart of the Elements of Quantum Physics series.
What better place to start the Elements of Quantum Physics series than the year 1900 and the work of Max Planck. Planck, is one of the founding fathers of Quantum Physics and is the Alpha amongst such remarkable physicists as Bethe, Compton, Dirac, Einstein, Fermi and Gamow …. Each of these remarkable physicists will be featured in this series.
Each volume in this series will feature the work of Quantum Physicists in their own words, and those of their contemporaries. If you are comfortable with high school math and science you will find this series both instructive and interesting.
This first volume of the Element of Quantum Physics Series is about Max Planck and about Black Body Radiation. This is obviously what the title implies. But this book is also about the scientific bridge between the important work of Planck’s predecessors Boltzmann, Kirchoff, Stefan and Wien, for Planck himself acknowledged that what he presented to the world in 1900 was evolutionary and not revolutionary.
Planck would publicly and repeatedly admit that his 1900 papers were the “Revolution that Never Was”, a bridge to and continuation of the remarkable work of his 19th century colleagues, in particular to that of Ludwig Boltzmann, Kirchoff, Wien and Stefan.
To help you, the reader, to better understand Planck’s theory regarding Black Body Radiation I have begun with a transcription of his 1900 paper titled On the Theory of the Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum.
The next part of the book, titled Thermodynamics, Thermal Radiation and the Beginning of Quantum Mechanics is a paper I wrote in 1981 as an undergraduate that explains Planck’s remarkable achievement in terms of his reasoning. Then I write in some detail of the physics underlying Black Body Radiation (in the next section the term Black Body will be defined borrowing words from Max Born, Planck’s friend and colleague).
In the second half of this volume I have also included a full transcription of Planck’s book “Where is Science Going?” Planck himself talks about his work and reasoning. I suspect you will find Where is Science Going noteworthy and very stimulating …
In separate appendices there is a transcription of his Nobel Prize in Physics Address titled The Genesis and Present State of the Quantum Theory and his Nobel Prize Autobiography.
Yes, I know there are many books on the subject of Quantum Physics, but how many of these books feature the work of the great masters in this subject?
In the 20th century about 25 % of all the new wealth created in the world came from Quantum Physics. In the 21st century I anticipate that over 50% of all new wealth will come as a result of Quantum Physics.
My gift to you, my reader, will be to help you to enjoy these great masters and their works and better prepare you for what great advances and adventures lie ahead.
The Second volume of the Element of Quantum Physics Series is about Albert Einstein, Special Relativity, the Photoelectric Effect and Photons.
To wet your appetite, let me ask you something …
do you know that Einstein is one of the fathers of the theory of Lasers – Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The first Laser was built five decades after Einstein outlined the theory behind stimulated emission of radiation. His theory built on Planck’s Theory of Black Body Radiation which is presented in this book.
Bet you didn’t know that…
What better place to start the Elements of Quantum Physics series than the year 1900 and the work of Max Planck. Planck, is one of the founding fathers of Quantum Physics and is the Alpha amongst such remarkable physicists as Bethe, Compton, Dirac, Einstein, Fermi and Gamow …. Each of these remarkable physicists will be featured in this series.
Each volume in this series will feature the work of Quantum Physicists in their own words, and those of their contemporaries. If you are comfortable with high school math and science you will find this series both instructive and interesting.
This first volume of the Element of Quantum Physics Series is about Max Planck and about Black Body Radiation. This is obviously what the title implies. But this book is also about the scientific bridge between the important work of Planck’s predecessors Boltzmann, Kirchoff, Stefan and Wien, for Planck himself acknowledged that what he presented to the world in 1900 was evolutionary and not revolutionary.
Planck would publicly and repeatedly admit that his 1900 papers were the “Revolution that Never Was”, a bridge to and continuation of the remarkable work of his 19th century colleagues, in particular to that of Ludwig Boltzmann, Kirchoff, Wien and Stefan.
To help you, the reader, to better understand Planck’s theory regarding Black Body Radiation I have begun with a transcription of his 1900 paper titled On the Theory of the Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum.
The next part of the book, titled Thermodynamics, Thermal Radiation and the Beginning of Quantum Mechanics is a paper I wrote in 1981 as an undergraduate that explains Planck’s remarkable achievement in terms of his reasoning. Then I write in some detail of the physics underlying Black Body Radiation (in the next section the term Black Body will be defined borrowing words from Max Born, Planck’s friend and colleague).
In the second half of this volume I have also included a full transcription of Planck’s book “Where is Science Going?” Planck himself talks about his work and reasoning. I suspect you will find Where is Science Going noteworthy and very stimulating …
In separate appendices there is a transcription of his Nobel Prize in Physics Address titled The Genesis and Present State of the Quantum Theory and his Nobel Prize Autobiography.
Yes, I know there are many books on the subject of Quantum Physics, but how many of these books feature the work of the great masters in this subject?
In the 20th century about 25 % of all the new wealth created in the world came from Quantum Physics. In the 21st century I anticipate that over 50% of all new wealth will come as a result of Quantum Physics.
My gift to you, my reader, will be to help you to enjoy these great masters and their works and better prepare you for what great advances and adventures lie ahead.
The Second volume of the Element of Quantum Physics Series is about Albert Einstein, Special Relativity, the Photoelectric Effect and Photons.
To wet your appetite, let me ask you something …
do you know that Einstein is one of the fathers of the theory of Lasers – Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. The first Laser was built five decades after Einstein outlined the theory behind stimulated emission of radiation. His theory built on Planck’s Theory of Black Body Radiation which is presented in this book.
Bet you didn’t know that…
