B Proof of the existence of atoms

[epenguin]

rutherford experiment on scattering of alpha particles?

that was the unforeseeable finding that the positively charged matter of the atom is concentrated in a tiny volume of it.

The atoms themselves (and electron) accepted before that.

 

[KipIngram]

Reference links please.

I'll try - it's been a long long time since I encountered that.

Edit:
Ok, I found this - it's not the same thing I read years ago, but it gets at it:

https://physicsworld.com/a/max-planck-the-reluctant-revolutionary/

A quote from there:

As to the quantum discontinuity – the crucial feature that the energy does not vary continuously, but in “jumps” – he believed for a long time that it was a kind of mathematical hypothesis, an artefact that did not refer to real energy exchanges between matter and radiation.

There is also another thread here:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/plancks-radiation-law-act-of-desperation.686243/

 

[bob012345]

It's well known that Planck didn't like his own discovery, and during the long rest of his long life he was looking for an explanation within classical physics. You can read this in almost all books on the history of quantum theory or biography about Planck.

We might say then that Planck wasn't very discreet about nature being discrete...

 

[sophiecentaur]

We might say then that Planck wasn't very discreet about nature being discrete...

We have all been 'helped' into that paradigm and it's easy too take it for granted. It must have been a real struggle at the time and with a lot of great brains opposing the idea very competently.