Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck

TIMELINE
1858
1874
1877
1879
1880
1885

1887
1889
1892
1900
1900

1918
1947

Born on April 23 in Kiel, Holstein

Began his studies at the University of Munich under the supervision of Physics professor Philipp von Jolly
Went to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin for a year of study with physicists Hermann von
Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff and mathematician Karl Weierstrass.
Completed his habilitation thesis on heat theory and received his doctorate of philosophy at Munich.
Became an unpaid private lecturer in Munich.
University of Kiel appointed him as an associate professor of theoretical physics, and he continued to
pursue work on heat theory and on Rudolph Clausius ideas about entropy and its application in physical
chemistry.
Married Marie Merck and they went on to have four children, Karl (1888), the twins Emma and Grete
(1889) and Erwin (1893).
Moved to the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin and was named the successor to Kirchhoff's position
Became a full professor in Berlin.
Proposed Planck black-body radiation law on 19 October which described the experimentally observed
black-body spectrum well.
Revised the law and proposed the Planck postulate on 14 December, one of the fundamental principles
of quantum mechanics, is the postulate that the energy of oscillators in a black body is quantized, and is
given by E=nhv
Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics
Died at the age 89 on October 4.

CONTRUBUTION
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Kickstart research in Quantum Mechanics.

Energy is in packets(quanta)
Able to determine the quantity of energy contained in a quantum (packet), with a constant that is now known as
Planck's Constant (h). The constant is 6.626 068 96 x 10-34 J s .
Proposed Planck Postulate, E=hv (h stands for Planck's constant, E for the energy, and V for the frequency of
radiation). It is used to measure the electromagnetism quantity of energy emitted by a quantified object.
Allowing the humanity to develop and build transistors. Transistors are used to build parts of electronics and
computers, which means that without Max Planck, maybe we wouldn't have computers and the all the electronic
devices that make our life easier.