Max Planck
Max Planck
Max Planck (1858–1947) was a German theoretical physicist whose discovery of energy quanta founded quantum theory, one of the two pillars of modern physics. As a young student in Munich he was advised that little remained to be discovered in physics, but he chose the field out of a love for its fundamental laws. His turning point came in December 1900, when, seeking to explain the spectrum of radiation emitted by a heated black body, he proposed that energy is emitted in discrete packets, or quanta, introducing the constant now known as Planck's constant. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. A professor at the University of Berlin for decades, he was among the first to support Einstein's theory of relativity and guided German science through difficult years, enduring deep personal loss with steadfast dignity. The Max Planck Society is named in his honor.
Latest UpdatesLIVE
Physics from Newton to Feynman
Newton's laws of motion and gravitation framed physics for two centuries. Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism showed that light is an electromagnetic wave, and it guided Einstein toward special relativity in 1905. Planck's quantum hypothesis of 1900 opened quantum theory, which Einstein extended to light itself. Feynman later helped build quantum electrodynamics, the quantum theory of light and matter, sharing the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics.
21 followers
73 followers
73 followers
