People do revolution in physics

Max Planck's life is the life of a human being with conscience, morality, social responsibility, country and scientific development. The glory is not lacking for him. But perhaps few people know the life of tears that fate has reserved for him extremely grim.

Today, April 23, is the 150th birthday anniversary of the great physicist Max Planck. This is a meaningful world event. His quantum discovery in 1900 upset human awareness of the unprecedented micro universe, and has a constant impact on the changing face of society to date and beyond. The two words " quantum " today are synonymous with " high-tech ".

Modern physics is based on two solid pillars, Max Planck's quantum theory and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. Industrial and scientific advancements, the prosperity of society that today everyone of us inherits a great part comes from quantum theory, and its applications in the 21st century are expected to be more and more stronger, more stormy.

Beat the creed

I greet fate that gave me a humanistic education.The Greek and Roman classical houses I never wanted to lose from my memory.I firmly believe that in the present age, mainly driven by superficial benefits, humanitarian high school is more important than ever.Because it is important to let young people know that there is another kind of "enjoyment" other than a kind of enjoyment based solely on the material field or saving time and money.

MAX PLANCK

In the development of physics there are discoveries that go beyond science and become the decisive factor for the fate of mankind. Not only because it is the discovery of natural phenomena or new forces to apply to technology that increases human power to nature, bringing prosperity to mankind, but also because of its revolutionary nature embracing the idea in the interpretation of the natural world, the philosophical nature contained in it relates to the worldview of humans. Newtonian theory is such a typical example.

At the end of the 19th century the thinking of the bourgeoisie as well as the scientific world in Europe was conservative. After a period of building the storm in the 19th century, people believed in the longevity of the status quo. Both state and science order are considered sustainable. Planck's worldview formed in the air of that conservative thought that he later had to fight intensively and a great effort to overcome himself and review the existing " dogmas ". The painful experiences taught him that not the scientific buildings and the existing state buildings are allowed to be viewed as inviolable.

Birth of quantum theory

In the 20th century, Max Planck's quantum theory was an example of a revolution of such physical thinking. On October 9, 1900, Max Planck discovered " the law of heat emission ", which explains the emission phenomenon of "black objects" (not " black holes ") that the world is suffering from without cutting. It is calculated based on current theories that they think are immutable.

Planck (left) handed Einstein the Max Planck medal on June 28, 1929 (Photo: physik.uni-frankfurt.de)

He discovered that the energy absorption or emission of a black body (metal heated up to a certain temperature) does not occur continuously as one might expect, but only in the form of loose packs. discrete packages, and these energy " beams " are called quantum. Like beer, it is not distributed by a continuous flow but rather in the form of beer cans, beer bottles or beer barrels, of different sizes, meaning " discrete packages ". If E is that exchanged energy, Planck gives the formula E = hv immortal into history, where h is a constant, later called Planck's constant, and v is the frequency of the light .

On November 14, Planck presented his results at the meeting of the Berlin Physical Society, under the name " The law of heat distribution in the standard spectrum " (Gesetz der Energieverteilung im Normalsprektrum), nine pages long. It marked the official birthday of quantum theory.

In Germany the celebration begins on April 23 and lasts until October is Max Planck's month of death, with exhibitions, seminars, conferences, reading, film screening . From last week the broadcast stations The big picture in Germany has shown a documentary about Max Planck's life, and on science and technology issues, especially nanotechnology, is closely related to quantum, lasting nearly a week.The German bank has just released a special currency (photo - collection) to honor Max Planck in this 150th birthday.

Planck did not know that the formula ε = hv was an " absolute " law that, in unconsciously, Planck admired and sought, was the key to entering the micro-world. He did not fully understand the importance and did not believe this formula to be a great revolution, a new era in natural awareness.

Planck himself only believed that it was a temporary "math tip." "In short, I can call my work an act of desperation. Because in essence, I am a gentle person and tend to stay away from suspicious adventures ." . In the following years, there were still not many people who paid attention. People see quantum ideas as an auxiliary hypothesis to work, to solve the problem in the radiation field, but the other has no meaning to new to science, and people wait for it to be fast. soon will be replaced by something from classical physics.

The successful history of Planck's quantum concept is very arduous. Need a midwife to flap the " little prince " that has not been acknowledged, this work is entrusted to none other than Albert Einstein.

In 1905, Einstein proved that Planck's discrete quantum conception was broad and profound in nature, not just a " mathematical trick ". But Planck didn't believe it either. Einstein must fight alone for 20 years to change this conservative wilderness in the scientific world, to convince the scientific world that quantum conception is real in macro-level nature.

In 1926 when a series of young scientists such as Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Pauli, built quantum mechanics with extremely accurate applications in science, it was then that all doubts ended. Bohr earlier (1913) introduced an atomic model based on the persuasive notion of " discrete hops " of Planck and Einstein, and Bohr himself still did not believe Einstein's photon conception. Around 1927 it could be said that Planck's quantum conception with Einstein's support was considered completely victorious.

Quantum physics has since developed rapidly, making two great revolutions in history with so many applications that changed the face of the world in technology and life.

Max Planck was born on April 23, 1858 in Kiel (North Germany), studied physics in Munich and Berlin.His family is famous, reliable, straightforward, honest, ideal and elegant.He finished high school at the age of 16, graduated with a doctorate in 1879 at Munich at the age of 21 (the year of Einstein's birth), quite young, and privatdozent (professor without chair) from 1880-1885, then an outstanding professor of theoretical physics in Kiel, and since 1889, he succeeded the professorship of his venerable teacher, Kirchhoff in Berlin.

NGUYEN XUAN XANH