Planck’s Constant
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, born April 23,1858 in Göttingen, Germany is considered to be the founder of quantum mechanics and therefore one of the most important physicists of the twentieth century. Plank’s groundbreaking “quantum hypothesis” explained how the amount of subatomic radiation in an atom exists as a multiple of the energy frequencies of the “quanta” or minute energy units of which it is composed. The formula is given as E = hν, where E is energy radiated, h is Planck’s constant (a measure of the mass or weight of a quanta), and ν is the frequency of the radiation. Quanta can approach such a light weight (a weight below Plank’s Constant) that they wink in and out of existence. At the sub-atomic level then, the energy particles that form the building blocks of the atom aren’t always there.
