Chemistry and the Law

By Harold Goldwhite

In the first of this two-part series on Max Planck, I sketched his career to the point where, in 1897, he began to work on explaining the phenomena of black-body radiation, a problem that had challenged some of the best physicists of the day and that they had failed to solve. At first, he tried combining electrodynamics and thermodynamics, but Boltzmann correctly criticized Planck’s formulation. Planck then successfully combined Wien’s work with that of Rayleigh and Jeans, but a satisfactory physical explanation was still lacking.
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by Harold Goldwhite

April, like most months, is rich in anniversaries of scientists who made major contributions to chemical sciences. Among them are James Watson, Robert Woodward, Carl Lindemann, and Glen Seaborg. But I choose to discuss the career of a great physicist whose work made such an impact on our science that it changed the thinking and work of every chemist who followed him. I refer to Max Karl Ernst Ludvig Planck, born in Kiel, Germany, on April 23 (a birthday he shares with Shakespeare), 1858.
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Tags: Chemical History
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