Page:Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt.pdf/2

 experiment, the use of continuous spatial functions to describe light may lead to contradictions with experiments, especially when applied to the generation and transformation of light.

In particular, black body radiation, photoluminescence, generation of cathode rays from ultraviolet light and other phenomena associated with the generation and transformation of light seem better modeled by assuming that the energy of light is distributed discontinuously in space. According to this picture, the energy of a light wave emitted from a point source is not spread continuously over ever larger volumes, but consists of a finite number of energy quanta that are spatially localized at points of space, move without dividing and are absorbed or generated only as a whole.

Subsequently, I wish to explain the reasoning and supporting evidence that led me to this picture of light, in the hope that some researchers may find it useful for their experiments.

A certain problem concerning the theory of "black body radiation".
We begin by applying Maxwell's theory of light and electrons to the following situation. Let there be a cavity with perfectly reflecting walls, filled with a number of freely moving electrons and gas molecules that interact via conservative forces whenever they come close, i.e., those collide with each other just as gas molecules in the kinetic theory of gases.