The foundations of quantum physics were laid in the 1890s
when the German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947) proposed that radiation from a
hot object did not take the form of waves but was produced as chunks of energy
which he termed quanta, which behaved like waves when in combination. Max
Planck could only propose the notion of quanta as a mathematical concept,
having no way of proving their existence.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was interested in the
photoelectric effect that occurs when light strikes certain atoms and
electricity is generated. Einstein realized that this could best be explained if
light travelled as quanta, not waves, and gave the name photon to a light quanta,
this being a real entity and not just a mathematical idea.
In 1913 the Danish physicist Niels Bohr (1885-1962) used
quantum theory to explain the different energy levels of electrons in an atom.
Further work during the 1920s by Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)
and Werner Heisenberg (1901-76) developed the idea of quantum energy levels in
atoms, thus creating a new branch of physics called quantum physics.
Quantum physics explains how electrons emit radiation and
shows that an electron can be regarded as both a wave and a particle.
Quantum physics has had many practical applications, such as
in the development of lasers and transistors.
© John Welford
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