Who Gave Quantum Theory
Quantum theory is also known as quantum physics, quantum mechanics, matrix mechanics, and the wave mechanical model, as Quantum theory is the theoretical basis of modern physics which explains the nature and behaviour of matter and energy on a subatomic scale. It is one of the most complex but interesting theories and a branch of physics in which we study the working of the universe in a very different way.
Quantum theory was not invented by just an idea but it was the result of a series of experiments. The history of quantum mechanics is a fundamental part of the history of modern physics, as quantum theory including with theory of relativity of Einstein makes modern physics.
History of Quantum Theory
Scientific researches were already started around the 17th and 18th centuries about the wave nature of light when scientists like Robert Hooke, Christiaan Huigens, and Leonhard Euler proposed a wave theory of light. In 1803 Thomas Young describe the famous double-slit experiment. Then Michael Faraday discovered cathode ray in 1838. These studies were followed by the black-body radiation problem given by Gustav Kirchhoff in 1859, the suggestion given by Ludwig Boltzmann in 1877 that the energy state of a physical system can be discrete, and the quantum hypothesis of Max Plank in 1900 which says that any energy-radiating atomic system can be theoretically divided into several discrete "energy elements" such that each of this energy elements is proportional to the frequency with which each of them individually radiates energy as shown in the following formula
ε = hv
where 'h' is a numerical constant called plank's constant.
The foundations of quantum mechanics were established during the first half of the 20th century by Max Plank, Heisenberg, Loi de Broglie, Neils Bohr, Einstein, Arthur Campton, Erwin Schrodinger, Max Born, John Von Neumann, Paul Dirac, Fermi, Dyson, Max Von Laue, Wolfgang Pauli, Hilbert, Satyandra Nath Bose, Wilhelm Wien, Sommerfeld and others
Development of Quantum Theory
Physicist Max Plank was trying to discover the reason that the radiation from a glowing body changes its colour from red, orange and other colours and finally blue (changes of frequency) as its temperature increases. He found that by making an assumption that energy exists in individual units or packets, in the same way as a matter does, rather than a constant electromagnetic wave as assumed earlier, he was getting the answer.
Plank wrote mathematical equations along with a figure to represent these packets of energy which he called quanta. His equation explained the phenomena very well. He found that at certain discrete temperature level energy from a glowing body will occupy a different area of the colour spectrum (different frequencies). Plank already assumed that a great theory is going to emerge from these quanta. In 1918 he won noble prize also for his work in the field of quanta.
Then in 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper of photoelectric effect which is the emission of electrons when electromagnetic waves such as light hit a material. Electrons emitted by this process is called photoelectron. It advances a hypothesis that light energy is carried in discrete quantised packets. This was the further step in understanding quantum physics. In 1914 Millikan's experiment supported Einstein's model of the photoelectric effect, and in 1922 he was awarded a Nobel Prize in Physics for his achievement
Then Louis de Broglie proposed that there is no fundamental difference in the behaviour of energy and matter in 1924. On the subatomic level, it may behave as made of particles or as well as waves. This theory is known as wave-particle duality. Elementary particles of both matter and energy behave depending on the conditions as particle or wave.
Then in 1927, Warner Heisenberg proposed that the measurement of two complementary values such as position and momentum of a subatomic particle simultaneously is impossible. The more preciously one value is measured, the more flawed will be the measurement of the value of other. This theory is known as the uncertainty principle.
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