On 4 March 2007 Chris Green wrote in relation to Einsteins 1905 photoelectric effect paper: > The photoelectric effect paper, while a landmark, did not by itself >overturn a "paradigm." Indeed, it drew on Planck's earlier blackbody >raditation research.
While it is true that Planck's formula for black body radiation was the first step on the road to quantum theory, Planck restricted its application to the absorption and emission of radiation, while retaining the view that electromagnetic radiation was, in line with Maxwell's theory, a continuous wave in the ether. In other words, Planck was still working within the context of classical physics. Einstein's revolutionary leap was to propose that electromagnetic waves actually travelled in the form of quanta, thereby opening the way for the development of quantum theory (to which he continued to make significant contributions) in the years immediately following 1905. The 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect was the only one of the celebrated three that Einstein acknowledged to be genuinely "revolutionary", and it was the one cited specifically when he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org/ --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
