Max Planck: His Story of Winning the Nobel Prize in Physics

Hardev Singh Virk

Abstract

The Nobel Prize is the most coveted and one of the best-known academic honors in the world. During 19th century, Germany, France, and UK were leaders in science and most of the Nobel Prizes were shared amongst their scientists. Max Planck is acknowledged as the Father of Quantum Physics. He got 74 nominations, including one from Albert Einstein, for Nobel Prize between 1907 and 1918 before he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1919. The story reveals that getting nominated is not so difficult but there are many hurdles to be crossed for achieving the award. Max Planck discovered a new definition of the Second Law of thermodynamics which became the basis of his famous law of black body radiation. His ideas influenced the development of Theoretical Physics in Germany and later in the whole world. Keywords: Max Planck, Radiation, Quanta, Planck Constant, Nobel Prize