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On The Law of Distribution of Energy in The Normal Spectrum: Annalen Der Physik

Planck summarizes previous work showing that Wien's law of energy distribution in the normal spectrum is not fully valid based on new spectral measurements. He aims to correct the theory by reexamining how to calculate the entropy S of a resonator as a function of its vibrational energy U within the framework of electromagnetic radiation theory. Planck introduces a new condition for calculating S and describes a new method that yields a simpler expression for entropy and provides a new radiation equation that does not seem to conflict with experimental facts.

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249 views2 pages

On The Law of Distribution of Energy in The Normal Spectrum: Annalen Der Physik

Planck summarizes previous work showing that Wien's law of energy distribution in the normal spectrum is not fully valid based on new spectral measurements. He aims to correct the theory by reexamining how to calculate the entropy S of a resonator as a function of its vibrational energy U within the framework of electromagnetic radiation theory. Planck introduces a new condition for calculating S and describes a new method that yields a simpler expression for entropy and provides a new radiation equation that does not seem to conflict with experimental facts.

Uploaded by

Victor Vizcarra
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Planck Discovers the Quantum of Action file:///home/igor/Public/webstrodjel/dokumenti/Plan...

On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the


Normal Spectrum
Max Planck

Annalen der Physik


vol. 4, p. 553 ff (1901)

[Transcriber's Note: Where an equation is numbered and NOT part of an


image, I have used a pound (#) sign to indicate a numbered equation. Due to
the formatting, I would not want some to think that a numerial factor was
being used in the equation. J.P.]

The recent spectral measurements made by O. Lummer and E. Pringsheim1,


and even more notable those by H. Rubens and F. Kurlbaum2, which together
confirmed an earlier result obtained by H. Beckmann,3 show that the law of
energy distribution in the normal spectrum, first derived by W. Wien from
molecular-kinetic considerations and later by me from the theory of
electromagnetic radiation, is not valid generally.

In any case the theory requires a correction, and I shall attempt in the
following to accomplish this on the basis of the theory of electromagnetic
radiation which I developed. For this purpose it will be necessary first to find
in the set of conditions leading to Wien's energy distribution law that term
which can be changed; thereafter it will be a matter of removing this term from
the set and making an appropriate substitution for it.

In my last article4 I showed that the physical foundations of the


electromagnetic radiation theory, including the hypothesis of "natural
radiation," withstand the most severe criticism; and since to my knowledge
there are no errors in the calculations, the principle persists that the law of
energy distribution in the normal spectrum is completely determined when one
succeeds in calculating the entropy S of an irradiated, monochromatic,
vibrating resonator as a function of its vibrational energy U. Since one then
obtains, from the relationship dS/dU = 1/q, the dependence of the energy U on
the temperature q, and since the energy is also related to the density of
radiation at the corresponding frequency by a simple relation,5 one also
obtains the dependence of this density of radiation on the temperature. The
normal energy distribution is then the one in which the radiation densities of
all different frequencies have the same temperature.

1 of 11 04/16/2010 12:15 PM
Planck Discovers the Quantum of Action file:///home/igor/Public/webstrodjel/dokumenti/Plan...

Consequently, the entire problem is reduced to determining S as a function of


U, and it is to this task that the most essential part of the following analysis is
devoted. In my first treatment of this subject I had expressed S, by definition,
as a simple function of U without further foundation, and I was satisfied to
show that this from of entropy meets all the requirements imposed on it by
thermodynamics. At that time I believed that this was the only possible
expression and that consequently Wein's law, which follows from it, necessarily
had general validity. In a later, closer analysis,6 however, it appeared to me
that there must be other expressions which yield the same result, and that in
any case one needs another condition in order to be able to calculate S
uniquely. I believed I had found such a condition in the principle, which at the
time seemed to me perfectly plausible, that in an infinitely small irreversible
change in a system, near thermal equilibrium, of N identical resonators in the
same stationary radiation field, the increase in the total entropy SN = NS with
which it is associated depends only on its total energy UN = NU and the
changes in this quantity, but not on the energy U of individual resonators. This
theorem leads again to Wien's energy distribution law. But since the latter is
not confirmed by experience one is forced to conclude that even this principle
cannot be generally valid and thus must be eliminated from the theory.7

Thus another condition must now be introduced which will allow the
calculation of S, and to accomplish this it is necessary to look more deeply into
the meaning of the concept of entropy. Consideration of the untenability of the
hypothesis made formerly will help to orient our thoughts in the direction
indicated by the above discussion. In the following a method will be described
which yields a new, simpler expression for entropy and thus provides also a
new radiation equation which does not seem to conflict with any facts so far
determined.

I. CALCULATIONS OF THE ENTROPY OF A RESONATOR AS A FUNCTION


OF ITS ENERGY

§1. Entropy depends on disorder and this disorder, according to the


electromagnetic theory of radiation for the monochromatic vibrations of a
resonator when situated in a permanent stationary radiation field, depends on
the irregularity with which it constantly changes its amplitude and phase,
provided one considers time intervals large compared to the time of one
vibration but small compared to the duration of a measurement. If amplitude
and phase both remained absolutely constant, which means completely
homogeneous vibrations, no entropy could exist and the vibrational energy
would have to be completely free to be converted into work. The constant
energy U of a single stationary vibrating resonator accordingly is to be taken
as time average, or what is the same thing, as a simultaneous average of the

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