Albert Einstein, and the Photoelectric Effect (Elements of Quantum Physics Book 2)
Book Details
Author(s)Albert Einstein, Patrick Bruskiewich
PublisherPythagoras Publishing
ISBN / ASINB00OYZPUUC
ISBN-13978B00OYZPUU2
Sales Rank880,218
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Volume Two of the Elements of Quantum Physics is about Albert Einstein’s and his work on the Photoelectric Effect. In separate volumes of the series Einstein’s work on Special relativity, the Photon and the Planck distribution will be presented.
The Photoelectric Effect was first discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 while he experimented on the generation of radio waves using an induction coil and spark gap. Hertz would go onto to win a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on Radio Waves.
Two decades before, in 1864, the great Scottish Mathematical Physicist James Clerk Maxwell had unified Electricity and Magnetism into one consistent mathematical theory – Electromagnetism – and in turn had predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, and had theorized that these electromagnetic waves would travel at the speed of light. It was inevitable then that light would be shown to be a form of electromagnetic wave.
Maxwell’s grand unified theory of Electromagnetism is elucidated in an excellent fashion by Albert Einstein and his friend and colleague Leopold Infeld in their book Evolution of Physics (an excerpt of three chapters of Evolution to Physics is included in this volume). Maxwell’s successful effort in unifying electricity and magnetism would inspire Einstein in his unsuccessful efforts to unify Gravitation and Electromagnetism, an undertaking that would span the four decades from his discovery of his 1916 Theory of General Relativity (gravitation) to his death in April 1955.
The great debate over whether light was a wave or a particle (in earlier times called a corpuscle by Newton), was as yet unresolved in 1887, although in the late 19th century there was then more experimental evidence that light had wavelike properties. As fortune would have, light shared both wave and particle properties and in 1924 the term Photon would be introduced to the world by Bose, an Indian physicist who was encouraged to consider the dualism of light – the dualism of wave and particle – as being inherent in light itself. This great dualism and the Photon will be discussed in separate volumes of the Element of Quantum Physics series. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Between 1887 and 1905 a number of experimenters tried to better understand the phenomena.
In 1905 Albert Einstein would publish a paper that would explain the Photoelectric Effect.
In this volume of the Elements of Quantum Physics, a complete presentation is made of the Hertz Effect, Einstein's 1905 paper and the work of Robert Millikan who in 1915 published a paper that in essence verified Einstein's 1905 theory.
Einstein would be awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics for the Photoelectric effect. The Nobel Prize presentation address is include in this volume as well as some of the intrigue behind the photoelectric effect and the award.
In this book I have not touched on the practical or applied side to the Photoelectric effect. Why? This is something I leave to you the reader to do.
The next time you step into a closing door on an elevator and the elevator door springs back open I hope you appreciate a practical application of the photoelectric effect. The next time you Xerox or “photocopy†I hope you think about the photoelectric effect as well. At the heart of these two familiar day to day technologies is Einstein and his 1905 Photoelectric Theory.
The practical side of such quantum physics is more accessible to you the reader than the theoretical side of the quantum physics, and these books are about the Elements of Quantum Physics, from a scientific standpoint.
The Photoelectric Effect was first discovered by Heinrich Hertz in 1887 while he experimented on the generation of radio waves using an induction coil and spark gap. Hertz would go onto to win a Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on Radio Waves.
Two decades before, in 1864, the great Scottish Mathematical Physicist James Clerk Maxwell had unified Electricity and Magnetism into one consistent mathematical theory – Electromagnetism – and in turn had predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves, and had theorized that these electromagnetic waves would travel at the speed of light. It was inevitable then that light would be shown to be a form of electromagnetic wave.
Maxwell’s grand unified theory of Electromagnetism is elucidated in an excellent fashion by Albert Einstein and his friend and colleague Leopold Infeld in their book Evolution of Physics (an excerpt of three chapters of Evolution to Physics is included in this volume). Maxwell’s successful effort in unifying electricity and magnetism would inspire Einstein in his unsuccessful efforts to unify Gravitation and Electromagnetism, an undertaking that would span the four decades from his discovery of his 1916 Theory of General Relativity (gravitation) to his death in April 1955.
The great debate over whether light was a wave or a particle (in earlier times called a corpuscle by Newton), was as yet unresolved in 1887, although in the late 19th century there was then more experimental evidence that light had wavelike properties. As fortune would have, light shared both wave and particle properties and in 1924 the term Photon would be introduced to the world by Bose, an Indian physicist who was encouraged to consider the dualism of light – the dualism of wave and particle – as being inherent in light itself. This great dualism and the Photon will be discussed in separate volumes of the Element of Quantum Physics series. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Between 1887 and 1905 a number of experimenters tried to better understand the phenomena.
In 1905 Albert Einstein would publish a paper that would explain the Photoelectric Effect.
In this volume of the Elements of Quantum Physics, a complete presentation is made of the Hertz Effect, Einstein's 1905 paper and the work of Robert Millikan who in 1915 published a paper that in essence verified Einstein's 1905 theory.
Einstein would be awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics for the Photoelectric effect. The Nobel Prize presentation address is include in this volume as well as some of the intrigue behind the photoelectric effect and the award.
In this book I have not touched on the practical or applied side to the Photoelectric effect. Why? This is something I leave to you the reader to do.
The next time you step into a closing door on an elevator and the elevator door springs back open I hope you appreciate a practical application of the photoelectric effect. The next time you Xerox or “photocopy†I hope you think about the photoelectric effect as well. At the heart of these two familiar day to day technologies is Einstein and his 1905 Photoelectric Theory.
The practical side of such quantum physics is more accessible to you the reader than the theoretical side of the quantum physics, and these books are about the Elements of Quantum Physics, from a scientific standpoint.
