"A masterly assessment of the way the idea of quanta of radiation became part of 20th-century physics. . . . The book not only deals with a topic of importance and interest to all scientists, but is also a polished literary work, described (accurately) by one of its original reviewers as a scientific detective story."—John Gribbin, New Scientist
"Every scientist should have this book."—Paul Davies, New Scientist
Author(s): Thomas S. Kuhn
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Year: 1987
Language: English
Pages: 398
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Preface
Note to the Paperback Edition
CONTENTS
PART I: PLANCK'S BLACK-BODY THEORY, 1894-1906: THE CLASSICAL PHASE
1. Planck's Route to the Black-Body Problem
2. Planck's Statistical Heritage: Boltzmann on Irreversibility
3. Planck and the Electromagnetic H-Theorem, 1897-1899
4. Planck's Distribution Law and Its Derivations, 1900-1901
5. The Foundations of Planck's Radiation Theory, 1901-1906
PART II: THE EMERGENCE OF THE QUANTUM DISCONTINUITY, 1905-1912
6. Dismantling Planck's Black-Body Theory: Ehrenfest, Rayleigh, and Jeans
7. A New Route to Black-Body Theory: Einstein, 1902-1909
8. Converts to Discontinuity, 1906-1910
9. Black-Body Theory and the State of the Quantum, 1911-1912
PART III: EPILOGUE
10. Planck's New Radiation Theory
Notes
Bibliography
Afterword: Revisiting Planck
Index
