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Max Planck
By Sydney Rechtenbaugh!
Personal Facts
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Born on April 23, 1828
 Born in Kiel, Germany
 Studied at the Universities of Munich and
Berlin
 Received doctorate of Philosophy in 1879
Personal Facts
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Was Privatdozent in Munich from 1880 to
1885
 Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics
at Kiel until 1889
 Remained at Berlin University until
retirement in 1926
 Became President of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Society for the Promotion of Science after
retirement
University of Berlin
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named the successor to Kirchhoff's
position at the University
 By 1892 became a full professor
 Eight of his lectures used by the Ernest
Kempton Adams Fund for Physical
Research in Theoretical Physics
 Retired from Berlin on January 10, 1926
Contribution to Science

Some of earliest work with
thermodynamics
 Study
of energy conversion between heat and
mechanical work

Published papers on entropy
 Deduced relationship between energy and
frequency of radiation
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Black Bodies
 Became
interested in problem of “black
body”
 Something that absorbs all
frequencies of light
 Distribution of energy never matched up
with predictions
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Quantum Theory
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Formulated equation describing the blackbody
spectrum in 1900
 Found that energy radiated from heated body is
proportional to wavelength of radiation
 Thought quantization applied to the absorption
and emission of energy by matter
 Won Nobel Prize in 1918 for his quantum theory
Other Accomplishments

Elected to Foreign Membership of the
Royal Society in 1926
 Awarded the Society's Copley Medal in
1928
 Won the Lorentz medal in 1927
 Won "Pour le Mérite" for Science and
Arts 1915
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Other Accomplishments

Received honorary doctorates from many
universities
 Asteroid 1069 was named "Stella
Planckia" by the International
Astronomical Union
 Received Copley Medal in 1929
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Max Plank Society

Founded in 1948
 conduct basic research in the natural sciences,
life sciences, social sciences, and the arts and
humanities
 32 Nobel Peace prizes awarded to their scientists
 Best basic research organization in Germany
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Sources
"Max Planck- Biography." Nobel Foundation. 1967. Elsevier
Publishing Company, Web. 22 Feb 2010.
<http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1918/planckbio.html>.
Perkins, Dexter. "Thermodynamics." Integrating Research and
Education. 05 Feb 2009. Science Education Research Center, Web.
22 Feb 2010.
<http://serc.carleton.edu/research_education/equilibria/thermodyna
mics.html>.
"Max Planck." The History of Computing Project. 18 Nov 2001.
ScienCentral Inc and the American Institute of Physics, Web. 22 Feb
2010. <http://www.thocp.net/biographies/planck_max.html>.