Planck (1858- 1947) was born in a scholarly family. His great-grandfather and grandfather were professors of theology at the University of G? ttingen, and his uncle and father were professors of law at the University of G? ttingen and Kiel respectively. He was born in Kiel and spent his youth in Munich. 17 years old entered Munich University to study mathematics and physics, and then transferred to Berlin University to be taught by famous teachers such as Kirchhoff and Helmholtz (1821-1894). 1879 received his Ph.D. in the thesis "On the Second Law of Thermodynamics". He has taught at Munich University and Kiel University, studying thermodynamics. 1888165438+1October, as Kirchhoff's successor, taught theoretical physics at the University of Berlin. His research direction shifted from thermodynamics to thermal radiation, and it didn't start until after Berlin. At first, he studied the theory of blackbody radiation by thermodynamic method. He assumed that the cavity wall was composed of electric harmonic oscillators with the same frequency, and this harmonic subset was treated by thermodynamic method. In 1899, he got a relation that accords with Wien's radiation law. At the end of the same year, he learned that the experimental reports published by Kulbauw (1857- 1927) and Rubens (1865- 1922) in September showed that Wayne and his own radiation laws were consistent with the experiments in the high frequency part, but deviated from the experiments in the low frequency part. He had to try to modify his formula, and he got one, which was still not good. Just as he continued to modify his radiation formula,1in June, 900, the British physicist Rayleigh (1842- 19 12) published a paper criticizing Wayne for introducing unreliable assumptions in deriving the radiation formula. He applied the energy equipartition theorem of statistical physics to one of his etheric vibration models and derived a new radiation formula. In the same year1Oct. 7th, 65438, Mr. and Mrs. Rubens visited Planck and told him that the Rayleigh radiation law was consistent with his experiment in the low frequency part, but quite different from his experiment in the high frequency part. Inspired by this, Planck immediately derived a new radiation law by interpolation, which approached Wien formula at high frequency and Rayleigh formula at low frequency. 65438+ 10 65438+September, he reported his achievements on the topic of "Improvement of Wien's radiation law" at the meeting of the German Physical Society. Rubens checked that night and proved that Planck's new formula was completely consistent with the experiment. Rubens is convinced that it is no coincidence that Planck's formula is completely consistent with the experimental curve, and there must be new scientific truth in this formula. So Rubens told Planck the result the next day. Encouraged, Planck decided to look for the physical essence hidden behind the formula. Planck returned to his harmonic oscillator model, and this time he shifted his starting point from thermodynamics to general physics. But he avoided the equipartition theorem of energy. He applied Boltzmann principle to the energy spectrum distribution of linear harmonic oscillator in thermal balance, and derived the energy spectrum distribution formula of harmonic oscillator in thermal balance. If the new formula can explain the experimental curve, it must have the same form as the formula obtained by previous interpolation. To achieve this unity, the energy value of the oscillator contained in the new formula must be a series of discontinuous quantities. This is in sharp contrast with the view that energy is continuous in classical physics. Planck respected the experimental facts, so he put forward a bold and revolutionary assumption: the energy emitted and absorbed by each charged linear harmonic oscillator is discontinuous, and these energy values can only be an integer multiple of a certain minimum energy element E, and each energy element is directly proportional to the frequency of the harmonic oscillator. Later, people called E "energy quantum" and H "Planck constant". 1900 65438+On February 24th, Planck reported his results at the meeting of the German Physical Society on the topic "Theory on the energy distribution law of normal spectrum". At the beginning of the 20th century, the great physicist Planck brought quantum theory to our world.