Electromagnetic radiation, Maxwell theory

Theory The initial understanding of the refraction of light dates back to Maxwell s study of electromagnetic radiation. Ernst Abbe invented the first commercial refractometer in 1889 and many refractometers still use essentially the same design. 

Max Planck in 1900 derived the correct form of the blackbody radiation law by introducing a bold postulate. He proposed that energies involved in absorption and emission of electromagnetic radiation did not belong to a continuum, as implied by Maxwell s theory, but were actually made up of discrete bundles—which he called quanta. Planck s idea is traditionally regarded as the birth of quantum theory. A quantum associated with radiation of frequency v has the energy... 

After holding posts at the universities of Munich and Kiel, Planck succeeded Kirchhoff at the University of Berlin in 1888 after the latter s death. Planck continued his research in thermodynamics, including attempts to connect heat with the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell s theory of electromagnetic radiation. He also addressed a problem suggested by Kirchhoff, who had earlier established that the energy of radiation emitted by a blackbody depends on temperature and the frequency of the radiation. 

It follows from Maxwell s theory of electromagnetic radiation that e = n, where s is the dielectric constant measured at the frequency for which the refractive index is n. Equation (9.8) thus leads immediately to the Lorentz-Lorenz equation... 

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894). German physicist. He performed a number of experiments confirming Maxwell s theory of electromagnetic radiation. His discovery of radio waves led to the development... 

Maxwell s theory of electromagnetic radiation fits within the classical doctrine because the electric and magnetic fields (and their rates of change with time) take on well-defined values at all times and the future values of the fields can be predicted with arbitr y precision fr MJjlSif iililial te usiiig the Maxwell equations. In Maxwell s theoryV] f upon the amplitude of the elec-... 

The classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, attributed primarily to James Clerk Maxwell, describes radio waves, microwaves, infrared and visible and ultraviolet light, x-rays, and y-rays all as combinations of oscillating... 

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