Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics

Max Planck

Jul 2012 · Dover Books on Physics Book 14 · Courier Corporation

About this ebook

In 1909 the great German physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Planck (1858–1947) delivered a series of eight lectures at Columbia University giving a fascinating overview of the new state of physics, which he had played a crucial role in bringing about.
The first, third, fifth, and sixth lectures present his account of the revolutionary developments occasioned when he first applied the quantum hypothesis to blackbody radiation. The reader is given a valuable opportunity to witness Planck's thought processes both on the level of philosophical principles as well as their application to physical processes on the microscopic and macroscopic scales.
In the second and fourth lectures Planck shows how the new ideas of statistical mechanics transformed the understanding of chemical physics. The seventh lecture discusses the principle of least action, while the final one gives an account of the theory of special relativity, of which Planck had been an early champion.
These lectures are especially important since they reflect Planck's reconsiderations and rethinking of his original discovery of quantum theory. A new Introduction by Peter Pesic places this book in historical perspective among Planck's works and those of his contemporaries. Now available in this inexpensive edition, it will be of particular interest to students of modern physics and of the philosophy and history of science.

About the author

Max Planck, a German physicist, received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Munich (1879) and taught at the University of Berlin from 1891 to 1928. By studying black-body radiation, he discovered that energy is not continuous, but is emitted or absorbed in fundamental, individual units called quanta. Quantum theory originated from his 1900 paper, representing a radical break with classical physics that even Planck could not wholly accept. For his work in quantum theory, Planck was awarded the 1918 Nobel Prize in physics. Other physicists were able to apply the quantum concept by following up on his revolutionary idea. Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, explaining the photoelectric effect, and Niels Bohr's 1913 model of the hydrogen atom were two applications of Planck's theory. Along with Einstein, Planck ranks as one of the two founders of modern physics. He was the acknowledged leader of German science in the 1930s, as president of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. However, he resigned this post in 1937 to protest the Nazi treatment of Jewish scientists. He remained in Germany throughout World War II. After the war the Institute was renamed the Max Planck Institute, and he again served as its president until his death. Planck's personal life contained many tragedies: death of a wife, two sons (one was killed in World War I, the other was executed in 1944 for participation in an unsuccessful conspiracy to assassinate Hitler), and two daughters (in childbirth).