Max Planck, the Father of Quantum Theory

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany on April 23, 1858 (Foundation, 2014). He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1918 and developed what would come to be known as “Planck’s Constant” in quantum theory. During his collegiate years he studied under Gustav Kirchoff, who developed Kirchoff’s Law for current and voltages. He suffered a personal tragedy when one of his sons was killed for his participation in an assassination attempt against Adolf Hitler in 1944. Planck’s earliest work was on the subject of thermodynamics, an interest he acquired from his studies under Kirchoff, whom he greatly admired. He also published papers on entropy, thermoelectricity, and on the theory of dilute solutions. Planck’s work on quantum theory, as it came to be known, was published in the “Annalen der Physi” (Annals of Physics). His work is summarized in two books, “Thermodynamik” (Thermodynamics) in 1897, and “Theorie der Wärmestrahlung” (Theory of Heat Radiation) in 1906. Max Planck is commonly known as “The Father of Quantum Theory.” He dedicated his life to understanding the workings of Quantum Physics, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918. For years that spanned several decades, physicists were working ahrd at trying to understand the results they continued to get from heating black bodies, a surface that absorbs all frequencies of light that hits it. Over the years and as hard as they tried, scientists just could not figure out or explain their findings using classical physics of their time. In 1900 a German theoretical physicist by the name of Max Planck discovered the equation that explained their findings from testing. The equation was E = Nhf with E = energy, N = integer, h = constant, and f = frequency. When Planck used this equation, his idea of the constant “h” is now known as “Planck’s Constant.” Planck discovered that energy that appears to be emitted in wavelengths is actually released in small packets. Planck’s new theory of