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History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 16 (2/26/03)
Making sense of the quantum

 
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Outline Planck takes up the question of blackbody radiation
    Thermo, EM, and the nature of the second law
    Planck's oscillator model
    The snag: Experimental deviations
    What Planck cared about: More than just curve-fitting

Making sense of the new empirical formula
    Boltzmann's statistical formulation
    What are the microscopic configurations?
    Finite energy elements: What do they mean?
    A new physical constant

Where is the ultraviolet catastrophe?
    Equipartition
    Who cared?
    Mythologies

Einstein: The reality of the quantum
    Applying thermo and stat mech to light itself
    The analogy to particles in gases
    An experimental test: The photoelectric effect
    But not an experimental proof: Why doubts remain
Names and terms
Primary Secondary
Max Planck (1858-1947), NP 1918
infrared
epsilon = h x nu
Planck's constant h
quantization
ultraviolet catastrophe
 John William Strutt, Lord Rayleigh (1842-1919), NP 1904 (but not for this)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955), NP 1921
"On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" (1905)
light quantum, (later) photon
KE = h x nu - P
Robert Millikan (1868-1953), NP 1923		 simple harmonic oscillator
equipartition
Assignment Physical Review essay: See separate instructions for the writing assignment .
Copyright © Cathryn Carson 2003