All the introductions to quantum mechanics very quickly mention Max Planck. What do I remember of Planck from high school, college, somewhere? Didn't he suggest that maybe on the atomic level energy jumps from one intensity to another without going through all the levels in between? And I remember a formula, E=hv, where h is Planck's constant. Well, that doesn't take me very far. Better look in the library.
OK, here's a little book by John Polkinghorne published by Oxford in 2002: Quantum Theory: A Very Short Introduction. He starts a little further back than others. In the 1800's, people are thinking that light is a wave, like the sea. Isaac Newton back in the 1600s had thought light might be particles. He mentions James Clerk Maxwell as setting down the basic equations of electromagnetic theory, puts him in the same category as Newton, considers his equations the greatest discoveries of 1800s physics. They point to light being a wave.
Do I get distracted here? Do I now look for a college physics book to relearn the basics of electromagnetic theory? No one else is alive. I've got a lot of time on my hands. I'm probably going to have to go back to learn it at some point in this quest anyway. May as well.
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