157 



On The Atomic Structure of Energy. 



By a. E. Caswell. 



For a numljcr of years it has been well known that a number of the the- 

 oretical results of the classical thermodynamics are not in accord with ex- 

 periment. This is especially true in domains of radiation and specific heats, 

 and does not mean that these results are invalid, but, rather, while they 

 contain truth they do not contain the whole truth. Eminent physicists have 

 endeavored to formulate a theory the conclusions of which shall be true to 

 fact. The "Quantum Hypothesis" of Planck, which involves certain assump- 

 tions relating to energy, seems to furnish the basis for such a theory. It is 



c 



Figuie 1. 

 A. E. Caswell — On the .\toniic Structure of Energy. 



the purpose of this paper to present some of the difficulties which are insur- 

 mountable on the basis of the older theory but are explainable on the basis 

 of this hypothesis, and to indicate some of the results of the new theorj- and 

 its bearing upon our conception of the nature of energj-. 



Two important laws of radiation which have been derived from the older 

 theory are the Stefan-Boltzmann^ Law and the Wien- Displacement Law. 

 The former was proposed bj' Stefan in 1879 and was based upon the fact that 

 Tyndall had found the ratio of the energy radiated by a platinum wire at 

 1200° C. to that radiated at 525° C. to be 11.6. The law states that the 

 energy radiated hi/ a black body /.s proportional to the fourth power of the absolute 



'Wien. .\kafl. Sitz. 79, p. 391, 1879; Wie.l. Ann. 22, pp. .31 and 291, 1884. 

 Unn. der Physik, 58, p. 662, 1896. 



