CHAP XVIII - QUANTUM DYNAMICS

Summary

525. IN preceding chapters we saw how the classical system of mechanics failed to account for certain phenomena of physics, and it became clear that these could only be explained in terms of a new system of dynamics which must be supposed to supersede the old classical system when we have to deal with phenomena conditioned by the fine-scale structure of matter.

The first instance of the failure of the classical mechanics was provided by the phenomenon of black-body radiation. On the assumption that black-body radiation represents a state of thermodynamical equilibrium, we found that the observed distribution of radiant energy in the spectrum of an ideal black body could be explained on the supposition that the energy of each part of the radiation-producing mechanism fell into “quanta.” Corresponding to a simple harmonic vibration of frequency v, there was supposed to be an energyquantum of amount hv, where h is Planck's universal constant of which the value has already been given. Calling this energy ∈, it was found that the energy of vibration could be 0, ∈, 2∈, 3∈,… or any integral multiple of ∈, but could not contain fractional parts of ∈. The energy, after retaining one of these values for a certain time, had to be supposed to jump abruptly to some other value, which in turn was retained until another jump occurred.