Max Planck

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Max Planck and the birth of quantum mechanics

Listen to Max Planck's light bulb experiment and the origin of quantum theory

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Max Planck summary

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Michael Faraday (L) English physicist and chemist (electromagnetism) and John Frederic Daniell (R) British chemist and meteorologist who invented the Daniell cell.

Faces of Science

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law

36 Questions from Britannica’s Most Popular Science Quizzes

Related Questions

Did Max Planck originally claim that light itself was made of particles?
How did Albert Einstein extend Max Planck’s quantum hypothesis in 1905?
How did Einstein’s photoelectric-effect explanation use Planck’s constant?
How did Max Planck describe the emission and absorption of energy?
How did Max Planck respond to Adolf Hitler’s racial policies?
How did Max Planck’s idea of quanta differ from classical ideas about energy?
How did Max Planck’s quantum hypothesis solve the ultraviolet catastrophe?
How did Max Planck’s work on thermodynamics lead to quantum theory?
How did Niels Bohr use Planck’s constant in his model of the hydrogen atom?
How did Planck’s constant help explain quantized electron orbits?
How did Planck’s radiation law agree with blackbody-radiation experiments?
How did Rudolf Clausius influence Max Planck’s early scientific work?
How did temperature affect the peak wavelength of blackbody radiation in Planck’s work?
How does Planck’s constant appear in Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle?
How does Planck’s equation E = hν relate a quantum’s energy to its frequency?
How does Planck’s radiation law describe radiation from a heated object?
How old was Max Planck when he earned his doctoral degree?
What happened to Max Planck’s son Erwin after the July 20, 1944, attempt on Hitler’s life?
What problem with blackbody radiation did Max Planck solve in 1900?
What topic did Max Planck study for his doctoral dissertation?
What value did Max Planck calculate for Planck’s constant?
What was Max Planck’s role in the Prussian Academy of Sciences?
When and where did Max Planck die?
When and where was Max Planck born?
When did Max Planck introduce Planck’s constant?
When did Max Planck join the University of Berlin?
When did Max Planck receive the Nobel Prize in Physics?
Where did Max Planck hold his first university professorship?
Where did Max Planck spend the final years of his life?
Where was Max Planck educated?
Which areas of physics did Max Planck teach in Berlin?
Which belief about the second law of thermodynamics did Max Planck change while developing quantum theory?
Which scientific fields did Max Planck contribute to after his quantum discovery?
Which subjects interested Max Planck as a student at Maximilian Gymnasium?
Which universities did Max Planck attend?
Why did Max Planck choose physics instead of music or classical philology?
Why did Max Planck initially consider his radiation formula a lucky intuition?
Why did Max Planck receive the 1918 Nobel Prize in Physics?
Why did Max Planck remain in Germany during the Nazi period?
Why did Max Planck support Einstein’s special theory of relativity?
Why did classical physics fail to explain blackbody radiation at high frequencies?
Why do hotter objects emit radiation at shorter peak wavelengths?
Why is Max Planck sometimes called a reluctant revolutionary?
Why is Planck’s constant important in quantum mechanics?
Why was the Kaiser Wilhelm Society renamed the Max Planck Society?
Where was Max Planck educated?
What is Michel H. Devoret known for?
What was the key experiment conducted by Michel H. Devoret, John Clarke, and John M. Martinis at Berkeley?
What is Erwin Schrödinger best known for?
What was Erwin Schrödinger’s most famous thought experiment?
What did Werner Heisenberg do during World War II?
What is Werner Heisenberg best known for?
How did Werner Heisenberg contribute to atomic theory?
What was Niels Bohr’s most important discovery?
What is Einstein’s greatest discovery?

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft - Max Planck - Revolutionary against his will
European Space Agency - Max Planck
The Nobel Prize - Biography of Max Planck
Florida State University - Molecular Expressions - Max Planck
MIT - Max Planck (PDF)

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Max Planck - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Max Planck

German physicist

Also known as: Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck

Written by

Roger H. Stuewer

Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Author of The Compton Effect: Turning Point in Physics.

Roger H. Stuewer

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Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

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Last updated

Sep. 30, 2026 •History

Max Planck (born April 23, 1858, Kiel, Schleswig [Germany]—died October 4, 1947, Göttingen, Germany) was a German theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame rests primarily on his role as originator of the quantum theory. This theory revolutionized our understanding of atomic and subatomic processes, just as Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity revolutionized our understanding of...

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