Since science has developed, the world has evolved by leaps and bounds. The improvement of knowledge in quantum physics, chemistry, biology and other subjects has allowed the human being to have a completely different lifestyle than the one they had just a few centuries ago. Today we are going to talk about a scientist who marked a before and after and who began the existence of quantum theory. Is about Max Plank.
This scientist was awarded a Nobel Prize and is considered a great creator of a theory that will lead to the development of science on a world scale. Do you want to know the exploits and history of Max Planck? Keep reading because it is really interesting and curious.
Who was Max Planck?
His full name is Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck. He is a German scientist born on April 23, 1858 in Kiel. He was a great researcher who studied at the universities of Munich and Berlin where he developed all the guidelines to give rise to modern physics. In 1885 he was appointed as a professor of physics at the University of Kiel and later in 1889 he went to the University of Berlin where he worked as a professor until 1928.
During his research, he was analyzing the characteristics of energy and how it works. The emission of light, the optical effects, the operation of the energy flow in the different organisms, etc. In 1900 he succeeded in establishing the movement of energy. And it is that the energy is radiating separately, it is not a continuous flow. Each component of energy is known as how many. It is from this name that quantum theory was called.
This quantum theory began to be successful in the scientific community and to allow the explanation of numerous phenomena that were unknown until that time. It is then that, continuing with his investigations, he managed to find the constant of universal nature. Since then we know it as Planck's constant. Thanks to this discovery, today it is possible to know much more about the operation of energy and thousands of calculations are facilitated, since this factor is an invariable constant.
Quantum theory
Planck's quantum theory states that the energy that each quantum possesses is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant. That is, it is showing us the energetic characteristics of each quantum or each component of the energy flow. This is very useful in order to know the operation of the energy flows of appliances and even of the energy balances in nature.
His discoveries did not invalidate the earlier theory that radiation travels by waves. After numerous subsequent studies, scientists now think that electromagnetic radiation moves by combining properties of waves with those of particles.
As always when a new discovery occurs that breaks everything established (see The theory of Continental Drift) is initially rejected by the scientific community. You need very valid and unequivocal arguments and evidence to ensure what you are talking about. Therefore, the discoveries made by Planck they were later verified by studies of other scientists. Thanks to these discoveries, physics began to function in a completely different and more developed field. This field of physics is known as quantum mechanics and it is the foundation of all the necessary knowledge to study atomic energy. If everything on our planet is made up of atoms and molecules, knowing their energy and how they work is of vital importance.
In 1905, recognized the importance of Albert Einstein's ideas on electromagnetic radiation. Both collaborated throughout their careers as physicists who worked to revolutionize that world.
Max Planck and Albert Einstein
Since Planck could not advance too far in his own discoveries, it served as a foundation for other scientists like Einstein to develop more theories. In 1905, Einstein published the theory known as the photoelectric effect with Planck's calculations and investigations. He was able to show that electrically charged particles are capable of absorbing and emitting energies as proportional to the frequency of light or radiation.
These quantum principles were becoming increasingly relevant in the world of physics until, in 1930, they were the general foundations of the new physics. With the discoveries that Planck made and that revolutionized the world of physics, he won numerous prizes, including the Nobel Prize in Physics. He succeeded in 1918. Furthermore, in 1930, when he finished his work at the University of Berlin, he was elected as president of the Kaiser William Society for the Advancement of Science. Later it was called the Max Planck Society.
At that time World War II began and Planck clashed with Hitler for his opposition to the Nazi regime. On several occasions he had to intercede for his Jewish colleagues to help them. He had to leave the association in 1933 to become president once World War II was over.
Suffering and development
Not everything Max Planck had in his life was pretty. He also had to suffer and deal with numerous tragedies. The first is that, in 1909 at the age of 50, he suffered the death of his wife after 22 years of marriage. He left behind two sons and two twin daughters. The eldest died in the battle that took place during the First World War in 1916. The two daughters died in childbirth and their house was destroyed in 1944 by bombs.
Apart from all this, as if that were not enough, the youngest son was implicated in a crime against Hitler's life and died in a horrible way in 1945. He had to survive his entire family until, with his second wife and daughter from this, they moved to Göttingen, where he died on October 4, 1947 at the age of 90.
I hope you liked this biography of Max Planck.