Abstract
IT is little more than a generation ago since Planck first formulated his quantum theory to explain the observed distribution of intensity of black-body radiation in its dependence on frequency and temperature, and so introduced the discontinuity idea into the description of natural processes. Meanwhile, the new theory has thrown out its feelers into practically every branch of physics, and developed with such amazing rapidity that it appears both fitting and natural that a special volume of the “Handbuch der Physik” should be devoted to it. Even so, not all the applications of the quantum theory are embodied in the present volume. Subjects such as the statistical applications of the theory, its relation to chemistry and to molecular structure, and certain aspects of the theory of band spectra have been relegated to their appropriate volumes. Furthermore, the epochmaking developments of quantum mechanics by Heisenberg, Born, Jordan, Dirac, L. de Broglie, Schrodinger, and others, are not included, but will doubtless receive their due share of attention in later volumes of the ‘Handbuch.’
Handbuch der Physik.
Herausgegeben von H. Geiger K. Scheel. Band 23: Quanten. Redigiert von H. Geiger. Pp. ix + 782. (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1926.) 57 gold marks.
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Handbuch der Physik. Nature 121, 7–8 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121007a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121007a0
