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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2021
This chapter covers the early years of quantum theory, a time of guesswork, inspired by problems presented by the properties of atoms and radiation and their interaction. Later, in the 1920s, this struggle led to the systematic theory known as quantum mechanics, the subject of Chapter 5. Quantum mechanics started with the problem of understanding radiation in thermal equilibrium at a non-zero temperature. It was not possible to make progress in applying quantum ideas to atoms without some understanding of what atoms are. The growth of this understanding began with the discovery of radioactivity.
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