Max Planck was a German theoretical physicist. He was the first to propose the quantum theory as he sought to explain the way in which hot bodies emit and absorb radiation. (The word quantum comes from the Latin quantus, meaning ‘how much’. The plural of quantum is quanta.)
Planck proposed that the energy transferred by electromagnetic radiation could only be emitted and absorbed in packets of definite size, which he called quanta. Planck was also an accomplished musician, and when he chose to study physics rather than music it is said that he was warned off physics as almost everything had been discovered. Planck ’s quantum theory was the start of the whole new field of quantum physics, which encompasses much of the new physics that we know today.
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