Max Planck's Biography

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel on the north coast of Germany on April 23, 1858. He had five older siblings. His father, Johan Planck, was a law professor and his mother, Emma Patzig. Max attended elementary school in Kiel in 1867. The family relocated to Munich in southern Germany where his father had been offered a tempting professorship. Max enrolled at the Maximilian's Gymnasium, a school for academically able children. One of his teachers, Hermann Müller, noticed Max was rather gifted mathematically and offered to take him on extra lessons in astronomy and mechanics. Max accepted the offer enthusiastically and Müller taught his receptive young student how to visualize the laws of physics in his mind, a vital weapon in the armory of the great physicist. Apart from his natural propensity for mathematics, Max was also talented musically. He composed classical music, had perfect pitch and played the cello and piano expertly. As if this were not enough, he also had a beautiful singing voice. Before he left high school, Planck decided he would pursue science as a vocation while music would remain an enjoyable hobby. At university, Planck discovered he did not enjoy experimental work. His mathematical talent found its natural home in the world of theoretical physics. He continued to enjoy music. He sang in the university choir and composed a mini-opera. In the winter semester of 1877, aged 20, Planck transferred for a year to Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelm University where he was taught by two of the giant physicists, Hermann von Helmsvold and Gustav Kirchhoff. He struck a friendship with Helmsholtz. One of Helmsholtz's passions in physics was thermodynamics. Planck grew interestingly fascinated by thermodynamics theory and pursued his own work in thermodynamics. After his year in Berlin, Planck returned to Munich in late 1878 where he passed his state exam allowing him to teach physics in high schools. A few months later, in February 1879, he submitted a doctoral thesis concerning the second law of thermodynamics. Three months later, he defended his thesis in an oral examination and, aged 21, was awarded a Ph.D. in physics with the highest honors, summa cum laude. In 1880, Planck successfully submitted a further thermodynamics thesis for his Habitalization, a much more demanding qualification than the Ph.D. which allowed its holder to become a professor if such a job became available. At age 22, Planck became a physics lecturer unpaid at the University of Munich without any salary. He continued living with his parents. His research focused on entropy. Finally, on his 27th birthday, Planck became an associate professor of theoretical physics at the University of Kiel where he probed even more deeply into thermodynamics. He continued making progress in this difficult field but made no major breakthroughs. At age 31, in April 1889, Planck returned to Berlin to take over the lecturing duties of Gustav Kirchhoff who had died in the fall of 1887. In the same, Planck married Marie Merck and they moved to Kiel. They had four children. After Marie's death, in 1909, Planck remarried her cousin, Margavan Hoslin, and they had one more child. In 1892, Planck became a full professor of theoretical physics. Two of Planck's Ph.D. students would later win Nobel Prizes in physics, Max von Law and Walther Booth. The scene was now set for Planck's momentous discovery, Quantum Fury. Most theoretical physicists make their mark when they are young. Max Planck was 42 when he finally left an indelible mark on the world. The problem he solved in 1900 was prompted by a puzzlement over the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by hot objects. A black body is an object which absorbs all light. His experimental observations showed that the wavelength distribution of energy was not constant but a function of temperature. Planck's new hypothesis opposed classical physics which predicted a constant wavelength. Being a conservationist, Planck himself doubted the validity of his experiments but felt it was just a convenient mathematical explanation. Notwithstanding, he duggedly stuck to his discovery. His work was summarized in two books, Thermodynamics 1897 and Theory of Heat Radiation 1906. Further research in this field proved that Planck's hypothesis was indeed correct. For example, Albert Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect relied on the same model of quantum energy. Planck was one of the first scientists to see the importance of Einstein's special theory of relativity published in 1905 and was instrumental in seeing Einstein's new theory gain widespread acceptance in Germany and the rest of the world. Einstein and Planck became good friends and Planck helped Einstein gain a professorship in Berlin in 1914. Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 in recognition of his contribution to quantum physics. It was widely regarded as a much-deserved prize. Planck was a Lutheran Christian and he adopted a liberal view towards other religions. He felt that as a physicist, God was the connecting link explaining the source of all matter and atoms. He was skeptical about some of the miracles attributed to religious belief and felt that the essence of religion was compatible with a scientific search for the truth. At all times, the elderly Planck remained patriotic to Germany, walking a moral tightrope, hoping that the Nazis would come to their senses and act in a way befitting of a proper German government. When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, Planck, his wife and his remaining son, Hermann, found refuge with a relative in the famous German university town of Eutzingen. It was there that, two years later, Max Planck died at age 89 on October 4, 1947. Today, he lies buried in Jötunheim's Old City Cemetery. Marger and Hermann's graves lie beside his. Thank you very much for watching our videos. We'll like to give you another interesting video for you to enjoy next but before then, our team will be very happy if you can like this video and share it with your friends on social media. If you're new here, don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss other interesting videos like this. Look at your screen now to see two other videos we handpicked for you to enjoy next. We love you