Subject: RE: History question

From: Dillen J Prof <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 15:44:02 +0200

Jens,

There is a (very good) book by Barbara Lovett Cline:
"The questioners: physicists and the quantum theory"
(Thomas Crowell Co, New York, 1965) where it is said that
a statement of this type was communicated by the "head of the
physics department" to Max Planck when he wanted to enter 
the university. The book mentions that this happened in
1875. No name is given for this departmental head, 
but Planck started his studies at Munich, and moved on
to Berlin at a later stage.

Jan
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jens Spanget-Larsen [mailto:[email-masked]]
> Dear CCL,
> 
> we are occasionally told that towards the end of the 19th century, 
> some scientists (physicists?) tended to believe that after Newton's 
> Mechanics and Maxwell's Equations all fundamental discoveries in 
> physics were made and that future work would only deal with details. 
> They even discouraged young people to enter the field! But then, of 
> course, came the turn of the century with, in 1895-1905, X-rays, 
> Zeeman effect, radioactivity, the electron, quantum theory, and 
> theory of relativity.
> 
>