The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory: Being the Nobel Prize Address Delivered Before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, 2 June, 1920

by Max Planck

You may know that the Quantum Theory revolutionized our perception of matter on the atomic scale, but did you know that its founder, Max Planck, himself didn't believe it?
This short read is Planck's address to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences after winning the Nobel prize. He displays how his Quantum Theory came into existence. It was not the result of a single lab experiment and a conclusion, but an inspection of overwhelming evidence from various works of immortal names like Bohr, Hertz, Ostwald, Einstein, and others.
Planck unveils secrets in the scientific community, explains why his own theory was inconceivable to the classical physicist, and first mentions the famous dispute between Quantum Theory and Relativity in this eye-opening book.
"After some weeks of the most intense work of my life, clearness began to dawn upon me, and an unexpected view revealed itself in the distance." "The quantum would have to play a fundamental role in physics, heralding the advent of a new state of things, destined to transform completely our physical concepts."  ~Max Planck

Genres: Science, Physics, Classics, Nonfiction, German Literature, Stem

24 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized human understanding of atomic and subatomic processes, just as Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity revolutionized the understanding of space and time. Together they constitute the fundamental theories of 20th-century physics.

Reviews

[Pardis TD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally his calculations were pretty accurate for his time, he is a quantum theorist after all.

[Forked Radish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Archaic physics of the latter Dark Ages. Determinism still reins in a fairyland of laws, waves, constants and fields. But at least Maxwell's electromagnetic radiation theory and consequently "the classical theory of interference phenomena" is trashed.

[Galicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Max Planck's speech before the Nobel Committee in 1920 when he was awarded the prize.