How did Planck come up with 'h'?

[Robin-Whittle]

I have started reading the Clayton Gearhart paper mentioned in my previous message and am finding it most helpful.

Here is another overview which looks promising: Chapter 3 - Thermal Radiation and Planck's 'Energy Elements' in:

Quantum Mechanics: Its Early Development and the Road to Entanglement‎
by Edward G. Steward Imperial College Press 2008

I found this chapter was available at http://books.google.com.

I found Figure 3.3 helpful. It depicts the black-body spectrum together with the curves of Wien's Distribution and Rayleigh-Jeans laws.

- Robin

 

[IPart]

Yours is basically a history question, so fortunately there is a unique answer! I suggest reading the first chapter of Resnick-Eisberg to get a lucid answer to your question and then some.