Planckfest 2000

The Centenary of Quantum Mechanics

A Celebration of the 100th Anniversary (less 6 days) of Max Planck's, "On the theory of the Energy Distribution Law of the Normal Spectrum", December 14, 1900.
12 noon, Friday December 8 2000, 817 Cathedral of Learning.

Refreshments

German beer supplied by John Earman. It was the very same beer that Planck might have been drinking on December 14, 1900, were he not at a meeting of the Physikalische Gesellschaft.

Altberliner Sauerbraten, after an authentic 19th century recipe, prepared by Jim Bogen and Peter Machamer. This is the very meal Planck might have eaten on December 14 were he not occupied making excuses for not drinking the beer.

Program

Chair, Rob Clifton.

Introduction, John Norton

John Norton introduces.

The life of Max Planck, Wendy Parker.

Wendy Parker recounts the life.

Max Planck as philosopher: his dispute with Mach, Hans Halvorsen.

Hans Halvorsen reveals Planck the philosopher of science...so rivetingly that the camera refuses to work.

Einstein celebrates Max Planck's 60th birthday, Peter Machamer.

Peter Machamer reads of Einstein, "Principles of Research," (1914), a celebration of Planck in flowery language that seems to step right out of the 19th century.

Planck's paper of December 14, 1900, Chris Martin.

Chris Martin reviews the paper that legend has it gave birth to quantum mechanics.

Did Planck propose quantum discontinuity in 1900? The Kuhn Thesis, John Norton.

John Norton dons a tailcoat so that he can channel Max Planck, who reveals that neither the Kuhn nor the standard story are what really happened. An account midway between the two is what really happened.