Understand the Quantization of Energy

                     Quantization, in mathematics and digital signal processing, is the process of mapping a large set of input values to a (countable) smaller set. As we know, in quantum mechanics everything is so small which is really beyond our imaginations so, I think quantization is a correct word for it. Classical physical theories had been tested many times and seemed to describe reality tolerably. Not until later, when these theories started to fall apart. The first phenomenon which classical physics failed to explain is called the black body radiation. Black-body radiation is radiation produced by heated objects, particularly from a kind of special object that is made so it will absorb all radiation (visible light, infrared light, ultraviolet light, etc.) that falls on it, and so that it will also radiate at all frequencies that heat energy produces in it. 

                 To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to know that all tangible bodies in the universe emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (light). The amount of energy emitted by a body depends on several factors, such as temperature or colour of the body. The higher the temperature of a body, the higher the average frequency (and thereby energy) of the light it emits. The reason we usually can’t observe this radiation is that bodies at room temperature emit predominantly light from the infrared spectrum, which is not visible to the naked eye. Visible light is emitted by metals during melting, for example, when their temperature reaches several hundreds of degrees Celsius, making it possible for us to see them glow.

                 Physicists of the 19th century were trying to ascertain the spectral composition emitted by a body in relation to its temperature. To accomplish that, they used a simplified model of a body- the black body. A black body that has to meet the following two conditions:-

1. A black body stays in thermal equilibrium with its surroundings (i.e. it has the same temperature as all the bodies located within the system).

2. A black body absorbs all the electromagnetic radiation that strikes it.

These conditions ensure that spectrum emitted by a black body is determined purely by the temperature of the body. However, when physicists tried to establish the composition of such a spectrum using classical physics, they obtained a result that did not coincide with reality whatsoever. According to classical physics, a black body would emit the same amount of light of each frequency. However, the higher the light’s frequency, the more energy the light has. A black body would therefore emit huge quantities of energy in the form of high frequency radiation-infinite, in fact.

                          This, however, has a dire consequences- classical physics thereby basically states that every single object in the universe should immediately emit all of its energy in the form of light from the ultraviolet spectrum. Luckily the universe doesn’t work like that, otherwise we would not exist.

                            The realisation was a huge milestone for the evolution of modern science. Physicists were at last unwillingly forced to admit that classical theories were simply wrong. Today, we have apt name for this huge failure of classical physics- The ultraviolet catastrophe.    

Max Plank

                            The black body radiation was solved by a German physicist Max Planck. He came up with an idea that bodies o not emit electromagnetic radiation continuously, but via small packets called quanta. The size of these quanta is given is given by the following equation:-

E= h .f

                                                        where, h is plank's constant and f is frequency.

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                                                         Founder and Writer of The Dynamic Frequency