What is the development in the field of physics in 1900?

Answer 1

The year 1900 was a great year for physics.

Up to that time, scientists believed that all that needed to be discovered had already been discovered.

German physicist Max Planck was given the task to solve a problem in relation to black body radiation.

On the basis of the theories in physics at that time, Planck could not solve this problem. Finally, he got the idea of assuming that energy was discrete in nature, that waves consisted of particles and that their energies were proportional to the frequency of the waves. Surprisingly, this solved all his problems. It made his equations possible. This gave rise to a completely different notion about many things in nature.

This new theory was called the quantum theory. As it turned out to be, the quantum theory became very useful in describing many phenomena which would have otherwise been impossible to explain (for example the photoelectric effect)

This was such a great discovery in the history of physics that physics before 1900 was referred to as 'classical physics' and physics after 1900 'modern physics'

For establishing the quantum theory, Max Planck was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 1918.