Max Planck

Early Life:
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, on April 23, 1858, This German Physicist
made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator
of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized our understanding of atomic and subatomic
processes, just as Albert Einsteins theory of relativity revolutionized our understanding of space and
time. Together they constitute the fundamental theories of 20th-century. Planck was also awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.
Planck was born into a large family and was brought up in a tradition which greatly respected
scholarship, honesty, fairness, and generosity. The values he was given as a young child quickly
became the values that he would cherish throughout his life, showing the utmost respect for the
institutions of state and church. Max began his elementary schooling in Kiel. He did well at school
but not brilliantly, usually coming somewhere between third and eighth in his class. Music was
perhaps his best subject and he was awarded the school prize in catechism and good conduct
almost every year. However, towards the end of his school career, his teachers raised his level of
interest in physics and mathematics, and he became deeply impressed by the absolute nature of the
law of conservation of energy. Planck describes why he chose physics:
The outside world is something independent from man, something absolute, and the quest for the
laws which apply to this absolute appeared to me as the most sublime scientific pursuit in life.

Contributions and Achievements:

Planck was appointed the professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. While in Berlin
Planck did his most luminous work and delivered outstanding lectures. He studied thermodynamics
in particular examining the distribution of energy according to wavelength. By combining the
formulae of Wien and Rayleigh, Planck announced a new formula now known as Plancks radiation
formula. Within two months Planck made a complete theoretical deduction of his formula giving up
classical physics and introducing the quanta of energy. On 14 December 1900 he presented his
theoretical explanation involving quanta of energy at a meeting of the Physikalische Gesellschaft in
Berlin. He announced his derivation of the relationship which was based on the revolutionary idea
that the energy emitted by a resonator could only take on discrete values or quanta. The energy for
a resonator of frequency v is hv where h is a universal constant, now called Plancks constant.
The discovery of Plancks constant enabled him to define a new universal set of physical units (such
as the Planck length and the Planck mass), all based on fundamental physical constants. Plancks
work on the quantum theory, as it came to be known, was published in the Annalen der Physik. His
work is summarized in two books Thermodynamik (Thermodynamics) and Theorie der
Wrmestrahlung (Theory of heat radiation).
This was not only Plancks most important work but also marked a turning point in the history of
physics. The importance of the discovery, with its far-reaching effect on classical physics, was not
appreciated at first. However the evidence for its validity gradually became irresistible as its
application accounted for many differences between observed phenomena and classical theory.
Planck was also a philosopher of science. In his Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, he
stated Plancks Principle, which holds that A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its
opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a
new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

Death:
This great man died on October 4, 1947 at the age of 89 in Gottingen, West Germany.