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| Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on April 23, 1858. He was born to Julius Wilhelm and Emma Planck in Kiel, Germany. Max was his father's sixth child, with two of the children being from his father's previous marriage. Mr. Planck came from a very well-educated family. His father was a professor of constitutional law at the University of Kiel. Max married his long time sweet heart, Marie Merck. In 1909, she died and he remarried her cousin. He had five children in his marriage, three dying in infancy. Planck lived happily with his two surviving sons, until a great tragedy took place. One of his sons was killed in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler. |
"The outside world is something independent from man, something absolute, and the quest for the laws which apply to this absolute appeared to me as the most sublime scientific pursuit in life." |
As a young boy Planck found small interest in science and math, but he loved music. At age 16, Max passed his school's leaving examination. He was excepted into the University of Munich, where his major was undecided. He came in contact with many great professors, and he found an interest in Physics. His decision to study physics came from the talks of small advancement in in research. |
| He went on and enrolled in the university of Berlin where he continued his study. After completing his study at Berlin, he returned to Munich where he received his doctorate of philosophy. Planck was appointed professor of theoretical physics at the university of Berlin. Planck became consumed by physics. He found interest in entropy, thermoelectricity, dilute solutions, and radiation processes. Max discovered an explanation envolving quanta of energy. This new discovery was called Planck's Radiation Formula. He found the answer to a long time problem: the distribution of energy in the spectrum of full radiation. | 
"h- Planck's constant" a universal constant |
| Planck received the Nobel Prize for physics in 1918 for his achievements. His discovery can be found within the pages of Thermodynamiks and Theorie der Warmestrahlung. On October 4, 1947, in Gottigen Planck died. Max Planck is widely known in physics for marking a turning point in the history of physics. |
