100th Anniversary of Quantum Physics

EricR writes "On December 14, 1900, Max Planck presented experimental results in front of the German Physical Society and announced that they could best be explained if energy exists in discrete packets, which he called "quanta." Today is the 100th birthday of Quantum Physics."

Comments

100th?

[servoled]

Would it be the 102nd? Or am I missing something here.

Re:100th?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Would it be the 102nd? Or am I missing something here.

The number 100 is correct.

Slashdot is simply very late with the news this time.

Re:100th?

[MrResistor]

It's slashdot math. You know, it's just like how 50+2-1=49

Re:100th?

[grub]

It's 102 in imperial years, 100 in metric years.

Re:100th?

[pimpinmonk]

Nah, it's correct. In the spirit of Planck they correctly accounted for the transformation from numbers to waves to particles and back.

Re:100th?

[Henry V .009]

Oh ye of little faith!

delta E * delta t >= h-bar

Therefore, the slashdot editors are being careful about not determining the time too precisely lest Max Planck and the German Physical Society accidently obtain an energy with an order of magnitude anywhere between a butterfly's wings and a supernova.

Re:100th?

[doubtless]

Yes, it is the 100th anniversary, but we have problem zeroing in the exactly street address Max Planck started all this. However, scientists are pretty sure he was somewhere in Germany.

Re:100th?

[Have Blue]

Given that Slashdot time was 100 years and wall-clock time was 102 years, we can determine that Slashdot is moving at an average velocity of 2.941 x 10^8 meters per second relative to the news source. No wonder no one has time to read the article...

boo hoo

[coloth]

I didn't understand the impact of uncertainty until I saw The Crying Game.

Quantum Mechanically Speaking,

[eigerface]

There is a finite probability that this will be modded up to 5.

Tomble answers your questions!

[Tomble]

Maybe I'm just sleepy, but wasn't the anniversary two years ago?

Well, reader, that's certainly an easy mistake to make, considering the title of the story, but if you look a little more carefully at the body, it becomes clear that the title (perhaps chosen by someone else) was wrong and inaccurate in a very different way, probably only badly chosen, due to a simple misunderstanding of the facts:

On December 14, 1900, Max Planck presented experimental results in front of the German Physical Society and announced that they could best be explained if energy exists in discrete packets, which he called "quanta". Today is the 100th birthday of Quantum Physics

As you can doubtless see from a second look, it all fits into place that Planck's announcement, which lead to other scientists further investigating the full ramifications of the theory, was the conception of Quantum Physics as we know and love it today. Whilst the title is obviously innacurate, the observation that today is Quantum Physics' 100th birthday is clearly correct, as it is broadly accepted that models of reality have a 2 year gestation period- a similar duration to elephants, I believe.

Sadly, though, Quantum Physics has not been too lucky in love, having had occasional brief flings with 50's icon Relativity, whom everyone would have liked to see it matched up with, but it never quite seemed to work out for them- it seems they just had too many differences.

Although we all wish Quantum Physics well, and it seems surely impossible that such a great catch would never get married (who knows, maybe good old Q.P will be able to patch things up with Relativity after all), it shall obviously not be having any anniversaries for some time yet.

Hope this clears everything up,
Tomble

Public Advisory

[pyth]

Our teams of scientists have discovered that this article contains trace references to Quantum Mechanics.
As such, there is a risk of discussions developing that involve people talking out of their
completely uninformed ass. Some of the most common symptoms of Quantum Ass-Talking Syndrome (QATS) involve the following topics:

• Philosophy - free will, determinism, subjectivity
  
• Theology - god's omni-something, predestination, free will [again]
  
• Science - failure of predictability
  

If you feel the urge to discuss these topics, we advise that you immediately consult somebody who knows what the hell they're talking about. If further trouble develops, a dose of reality is recommended.

Re:Basis of all science

[the gnat]

I would like to salute Mankinds greatest discovery, Qauntum Physics. This shows teh flexibility of the human brain

Sounds like your brain is a little too flexible right now. Go home and sleep it off, dude.