Max Planck

Max Planck (Kiel April 23, 1858 - Göttingen October 4, 1947) was a great German physicist. He advanced the subjects of thermodynamics, thermoelectricity, and the theory of dilute solutions, and was one of the founders of quantum mechanics.

Planck's revolutionary discovery, one of the most influential in all of science, was that a resonator could emit energy in discrete units, or quanta. The energy emitted by a resonator of frequency ν is hν, where "h" is a universal constant that is now called Planck's constant. This explanation resolved important discrepancies between theory and observations, and helped lay a foundation for the development of quantum mechanics.

Planck's research in quantum theory was published in the Annalen der Physik, and his work was summarized in the books Thermodynamik (Thermodynamics) (1897) and Theorie der Wärmestrahlung (Theory of heat radiation) (1906).[1]

Planck was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1918 “in recognition of the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta.”[2][3]

He was sympathetic to Christianity and critical of atheism.[4]

Planck's son was executed in 1945 for his part in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

## Publications[edit]

* Religion and Science (Religion und naturwissenschaft)[5]

## Quotes[edit]

Religion und naturwissenschaft (p. 6):[5]

> Under these circumstances, there is no wonder that the atheist movement (Gottlosenbewegung), which declares religion to be just a deliberate illusion invented by power-hungry priests, and which attaches to pious faith in a higher Power nothing but words of mockery, eagerly makes use of progressive scientific discoveries and in a presumed unity with them increasingly expands its own destructive influence among all nations of the earth and among all social classes. There is no need for any further explanation that after the victory of this movement there would be lost not only the most precious treasures of our cultural heritage, but - what is worse - the prospects of a better future.

## References[edit]

1. ↑ Biography. Nobelprize.org.
2. ↑ The Earth and Its Peoples A Global History, Bulliet et al, 2005
3. ↑ Raymond J. Seeger (December 1985). Planck, Physicist. The American Scientific Affiliation. Retrieved on 2012-11-04.
4. ↑ Jonathan Sarfati (25 November 2011). Should creationists accept quantum mechanics?. Creation Ministries International. Retrieved on 2012-11-04.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Max Planck (1937). Religion und naturwissenschaft (in German). “Unter diesen Umständen ist es nicht zu verwundern, wenn die Gottlosenbewegung, welche die Religion als ein willkürliches, von machtlüsternen Priestern ersonnenes Trugbild erklärt und für den frommen Glauben an eine höhere Macht über uns nur Worte des Hohnes übrig hat, sich mit Eifer die fortschreitende naturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnis zunutze macht und im angeblichen Bunde mit ihr in immer schnellerem Tempo ihre zersetzende Wirkung über die Völker der Erde in allen ihren Schichten vorantreibt. Daß mit ihrem Siege nicht nur die wertvollsten Schätze unserer Kultur, sondern, was schlimmer ist, auch die Aussichten auf eine bessere Zukunft der Vernichtung anheim fallen würden, brauche ich hier nicht näher zu erörtern.”