MAX PLANCKS LIFE &

CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

BY KALULE SAMUEL ,
PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS ENGINEER

BRIEF BACKGROUND

Max Planck was a German theoretical physicist, considered to be the initial founder of
quantum theory, and one of the most important physicists of the 20th Century. Around
the turn of the century, he realized that light and other electromagnetic waves were
emitted in discrete packets of energy that he called "quanta" - "quantum" in the singular which could only take on certain discrete values (multiples of a certain constant, which
now bears the name the Planck constant). This is generally regarded as the first
essential stepping stone in the development of quantum theory, which has revolutionized
the way we see and understand the sub-atomic world.

Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck, better known as Max, was born in Kiel in Holstein, northern
Germany on 23 April 1858. His family was traditional and intellectual (his father was a
law professor and his grandfather and great-grandfather had been theology professors).
In 1867, the family moved to Munich, where Planck attended the Ludwig Maximillian's
gymnasium school. There, he came under the tutelage of Hermann Mller, who taught
him astronomy and mechanics as well as mathematics, and awoke Plancks early interest
in physics.

Although a talented musician (he sang, played the piano, organ and cello, and composed
songs and even operas), he chose to study physics at the University of Munich in 1874,
soon transferring to theoretical physics, before going on to Berlin for a year of further
study in 1877. Having completed his habilitation thesis on heat theory in 1880, Planck

This is generally regarded as the first essential stepping stone in the

development of quantum theory, which has revolutionized the way we see

and understand the sub-atomic world

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY:

Hedi born wrote a letter to eistein to encurage Eistein to move to

Nauheim and now that max had got more interest in his experiment
the fact that he was now spending sleepless nights doing
measurements, working hard on the atomic diameter.

He always wanted to live a private life free from complicated human

relationships.

In 1894, Planck turned his attention to the problem of black body

radiation, the observation that the greatest amount of energy being
radiated from a black body (or any perfect absorber) falls near the
middle of the electromagnetic spectrum, rather than in the ultraviolet
region as classical theory would suggest

1899, he had noted that the energy of photons could only take on
certain discrete values which were always a full integer multiple of a
certain constant, which is now known as the Planck constant

Later in 1900, then, he revised his black body theory to incorporate

the supposition that electromagnetic energy could be emitted only in
quantized form, so that the energy could only be a multiple of an
elementary unit E = hv (where h is the Planck constant, previously
introduced by him in 1899, and v is the frequency of the radiation)

Planck was among the few who immediately recognized the

significance of Einsteins 1905 Special Theory of Relativity.

Planck's wife Marie died in 1909, possibly from tuberculosis, and, in

1911, he married his second wife, Marga von Hoesslin, who bore him a
third son, Hermann, the same year.

At the end of the Second World War (during which his youngest son Erwin
was implicated in the attempt on Hitler's life in 1944 and hanged), Planck,
his second wife and his remaining son moved to Gttingen. He died there
on 4 October 1947, aged 89, from the consequences of a fall and several
strokes.

APPLICATION IN TODAYS
TECHNOLOGY

MANPULATION OF QUANTUM LIGHT

Quantum optics is a field of research that
uses semi-classical and quantum-mechanical
physics to investigate phenomenal involving
light and its interactions with matter at
submicroscopic levels.

Quantum electronics is a term that was

used mainly between the 1950s and 1970s to
denote the area of physics dealing with the
effects of quantum mechanics on the
behavior of electrons in matter, together with
their interactions with photons

refences; the born-eistein letters 1916-1955

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