The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory Quotes
Nobel Prize, Physics books, Quantum mechanics
Top Quotes
“Planck, Max”
“Thermodynamics”
“Quantum mechanics”
“Boltzmann, Ludwig”
“[T]he case is... the same as with energy. Energy... cannot itself be measured; only its differences can.”
“Max Planck Nobel Lecture, June 2, 1920*obelPrize.org”
“The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory (1922)*rchive.org”
“The additive constant which... remained undetermined for energy was later finally fixed by the relativistic law of the proportionality between energy and inertia.”
“[O]ut of the classical theory the great principles of thermodynamics will not only maintain intact their central position in the quantum theory, but will perhaps even extend their influence.”
“But even if this radiation formula should prove to be absolutely accurate it would after all be only an interpolation formula found by happy guesswork...”
“I believed... that the basis of the law of the distribution of energy could be expressed by the theorem that the value of R is proportional to the energy. But in view of the results of new measurements this conception soon proved untenable.”
“I expected, in a [naive] way... that the laws of classical electrodynamics would suffice, if one adhered sufficiently to generalities and avoided too special hypotheses...”
“As in the case of energy, it is now possible to define an absolute value of entropy, and thus of physical probability, by fixing the additive constant so that together with the energy (or better still, the temperature) the entropy also should vanish.”
“The outcome of this long series of investigations... was the establishment of a general relation between the energy of a resonator of a definite free frequency and the energy radiation of the corresponding spectral region in the surrounding field in equilibrium with it.”
“[I]t became more and more evident that... an essential link was missing which should lead to... comprehension... The only way out... was to attack the problem from the opposite side, from... thermodynamics, a domain in which I felt more at home.”
“Nothing can better illustrate the rapid progress of experimental physics within the last twenty years than the fact that... [by] a host of methods ...the mass of a single molecule can be measured with almost the same accuracy as that of a planet.”
“Entropy, according to Boltzmann, is a measure of a physical probability, and the meaning of the second law of thermodynamics is that the more probable a state is, the more frequently will it occur in nature.”
“The difficulties which the introduction of the quantum of action into the well-established classical theory has encountered from the outset... have gradually increased rather than diminished; and although research... has... passed over some of them, the remaining gaps in the theory are the more distressing...”
“The pursuit of a goal, the brightness of which is undimmed by initial failure, is an indispensable condition, though by no means a guarantee, of final success.
In my own case, such a goal has been for many years the solution of the question of the distribution of energy in the normal spectrum of radiant heat.”
“To work out these probability considerations the knowledge of two universal constants is required, each of... independent meaning, so... evaluation of these... from the radiation law could serve as an a posteriori test whether the... process is merely a mathematical artifice or has a true physical meaning.”