Just a hobby exploring the origins of quantum physics and its counterintuitive nature.
I came across an article dealing with the evolution from Galileo to Einstein, where at the end we read that if the photon had a mass, then perhaps we should reconsider Newton. At the end, he cited an experiment on the validation of Coulomb’s law, which gave a mass of 1.6 10-50 and to conclude that it was so small that it could be considered as zero. At the time, I remained perplexed. Everything was relative, small compared to what? So I compared the mass of an electron with the sun: of the order of 10-60. A little later, I remained perplexed by Planck’s relation “E=hν“. Also, let’s consider a frequency as the number of cycles per second with this formula, whatever the frequency. We find the energy of a cycle always equal to the energy component of the constant h. So there, I connected with Newton’s corpuscle and the mass of the photon; out of curiosity, I called on Newton’s mechanics with h=1/2 mc2 => m=1,47 10-50!
So, I embarked on a Sherlock Holmes-style investigation to understand where this singularity came from: E=hν“? When I would have rather expected to have “P=hν” with h only in Joules and not Joules-seconds. After extensive research and numerous exchanges with the Wikipedia reference desk, I ended up focusing on Max Planck’s first writing, which revealed this formula. I read and reread it dozens of times, discussing this or that point that I didn’t understand with Wikipedia.
I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I changed paradigms and took up Max Planck’s demonstration while remaining in the spectral energy luminance of a surface. By applying the Kirchhoff-Clausius law in two dimensions, I saw a remarkable physical element replacing the Planck resonator. So, I am currently writing an article about this discovery.
Continued to the next episode.