How did Max Planck derive his constant H?

[Robert Miller]

I listened to a lecture the other day that some anomalies in observations compared to theory caused Max Plank to derive his famous Constant.

 

[Robert Miller]

Can somebody point me to a English summary of Max Plancks 1906 paper?

[Post moved to this thread by moderator]

 

[BvU]

That's easy: google ultraviolet catastrophe or Planck's Law

[edit] this was in reply to post #1. Since then posts #2 and #4 urged me to look into this some more. See #5.

 

[mpresic]

The best complete source on this can be found in Darrigol (I will check spelling if this is incorrect.): From C-numbers to Q-numbers. Prepare yourself for a complete exposition of blackbody radiation. Your strengths better be in electrodynamics and statistical Mechanics. After you read this you will regard Planck to be mentioned in the same breath as Einstein, Newton or Boltzmann. If you have a hard time with the citation of the reference above, I will write back if necessary.

 

[BvU]

Well, you are really digging in. I suppose you found this one by Gearhart already ? I was impressed - both by the article that goes in depth and by the fact that it can be found so easily; Google really is a miracle.

 

[Robert Miller]

I'm listening to a lecture by Barry Satterfield. It's long and painful to listen to due to so much background noise. The lecture is on Zero Point Energy. I don't have the math background, but I have a good head for the theoretical concepts. I've read this kind of stuff for many years. 20 years ago the ZPE seemed like fiction to me or at least not real. Now it seems to be on it's way to being a well developed field. I can't wait to see what the next 20 years uncovers in this field.

One major topic of this lecture was the experimental data that shows the speed of light is slowing, and that 'h' is needed so that (h*C) remains a constant. The value of 'h' increases as 'C' decreases at the same rate.