Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
by Max Planck · Die Entstehung und bisherige Entwicklung der Quantentheorie
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1920, published 1922
- Language
- German
- Length
- Short · 30 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory, translated by H. T. Clarke and L. SilbersteinClarendon Press, 1922The original English edition; the lecture is also freely available from the Nobel Foundation.
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The lecture Planck delivered in Stockholm in June 1920 on receiving the Nobel Prize for 1918. He describes how the study of black-body radiation led him, after years of work on entropy, to the hypothesis that energy is emitted and absorbed in discrete quanta, and how Einstein, Bohr and others extended the idea to light, specific heats and the structure of the atom. He ends by confessing that the quantum cannot be reconciled with classical physics and that a new theory is needed.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.