74 Mr. James Rice ort 



Unfortunately, in this direction, little has been attained so 

 far. If wc are to rebuild, we are still awaiting our Newton. 

 Into the mass of conflicting material one tentative principle has 

 been thrust. It is little more than a new proposal as to the 

 partitioning of energy, with but a small physical basis for its 

 support. Yet its undoubted success in calculating the partition- 

 ing of energy leads one to believe that it will perhaps one day 

 occupy a position of some importance in the new structure which 

 has to be raised. I will treat it first as a mere principle of 

 partitioning, and then say a few words as to the manner in 

 which its originator. Professor Planck, of Berlin, and his school 

 seek to justify it. 



Return to the two diagrams. The parabola representing the 

 partitioning of energy on the older assumptions and the peaked 

 curve representing the actual facts. Each curve is supposed to 

 be drawn for a definite temperature, T. Professor Planck's first 

 step was the discovery of the relation between these two curves 

 and of a mathematically elegant expression for it. Take two 

 near points P and Q on the frequency axis ; they represent two 

 definite frequencies separated by a small range of frequency : the 

 amount of energy in unit volume of the ether corresponding to 

 the types of vibration between these two frequencies would be 

 represented by the narrow quasi-rectangle PQBA on the equi- 

 partition basis ; it is actually represented by PQDC. Now^ it 

 appears that the ratio between AP and CP can be expressed by 

 a simple formula depending on the value of the temperature T, 

 and the value of the frequency represented by the point P ; let 

 us call that n vibrations i)er second, which of course corresponds 

 to a wave-length obtained by dividing the speed of light by n. 

 The expression for the ratio further involves the constant a 

 already used (with a A'alue close to 200 billionths, you will 

 remember), and a new universal constant, " Planck's constant," 

 with a value about 6,500 quintillionths (6-5 x 10"'^"). The 

 extreme importance of this new constant for purposes of cal- 

 culation is undoubted. There must be some physical basis for it, 



