Exploring Quantum Physics

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There are many different types of science in today's society. A few of these sciences include biology, chemistry, and physics. There are subjects within these subjects, also. One of these subjects is known as quantum physics. “Quantum physics is the theory that underlies nearly all our current understanding of the physical universe” (Rae xi). Without quantum physics, which will be referred to as quantum mechanics, and a few important quantum physicists, such as Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, and Albert Einstein, especially, many, if not all, things in the physical universe would not be understood. Max Planck was one of the founders of quantum mechanics. He was born on April 23, 1858 in Kiel, Germany. He gained his interests in mathematics and physics when he was nine years old. Planck enrolled into Munich University in 1874, but three years later, he transferred to the University of Berlin to study physics. He was awarded his doctoral degree in 1879. He started out as a lecturer, and then he was designated the position of associate professor at the University of Kiel in 1885. He was then a professor at the University of Berlin in 1889 and later appointed to the full professor in 1892. He was recognized as a theoretical physicists before theoretical physics was recognized fully as its own discipline (Barron para. 2-4). If it were not for Max Planck, quantum mechanics would not have been created, potentially. In 1900, he presented the law which brought about quantum mechanics (Charap 3). There was a major error in what physicists believed about the structure of an atom. This was demonstrated by Planck when he showed as the electron moves around the nucleus, it accelerates. Because of this accele... ... middle of paper ... ...e Great Debate About the Nature of Reality. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. Print. Landshoff, Peter, Metherell, Allen, and Gareth Rees. Essential Quantum Physics. New York: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print. Laughlin, Robert B. A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down. New York: Basic Books, 2005. Print. O'Connor, J.J. And Robertson, E.F. “Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger.” The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, 2003. Web. 27 April 2013. “Planck's Contstant.” Quantum Physics, n.d. Web. 17 April 2013. Qualitative Reasoning Group of Northwestern University. “Propulsion.” What Is An Atom?, n.d. Web. 24 April 2013. Rae, Alastair. Quantum Physics Illusion or Reality? New York: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print. Rigden, John. Einstein 1905. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2005. Print

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