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The quantum century

Dec 1, 2000

Physicists often complain that the phrase "quantum leap" is used erroneously, if harmlessly, by people to describe a large jump or change. Yet this month the physics community is celebrating the 100th anniversary of what must count as the beginning of the biggest quantum leap in the history of science, whichever way you define the phrase. On 14 December 1900 Max Planck presented a paper on the radiation emitted by a black body at a meeting of the German Physical Society in Berlin. This event is generally taken to mark the start of the quantum century, though few people realized it at the time - not even Planck himself.

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