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In 1905, Albert Einstein was
working as a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern. He
was completely unknown in the physics community. This was
about to change as he published three seminal papers in
a single journal volume during that year. As well as explaining
the photoelectric effect, he also sought to prove the existence
of atoms and introduced relativity. Not bad for a 26-year
old!
To explain the photoelectric effect, Einstein reasoned
that if the energy of oscillators was quantised as demonstrated
by Planck, then the energy of electromagnetic fields (i.e.:
light) could be given the same treatment. Up to this point,
all phenomena involving light (such as diffraction) was
explained in terms of waves. Now, Einstein's treatment
meant the light could arrive in discrete packets - which
he dubbed photons. Light now had a dual nature. Depending
on the experiment, light behaved as either a particle
or a wave! |
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1918 - Max Karl
Ernst Ludwig Planck »
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1921 - Albert
Einstein »
