Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics' is the published book of a series
of lectures delivered at Columbia University by renowned physicist and
Nobel Physics Prize winner Max Planck. These lectures cover the
following areas of theoretical physics: Reversibility and
irreversibility, Thermodynamic equilibrium in dilute solutions,
Atomistic theory of matter, Equation of state of a monatomic gas,
Radiation, electrodynamics theory. Statistical theory, Principle of
least work and the Principle of relativity.
The first, third, fifth, and sixth lectures present his account of the
revolutionary developments occasioned when he first applied the quantum
hypothesis to blackbody radiation. The reader is given a valuable
opportunity to witness Planck's thought processes both on the level of
philosophical principles as well as their application to physical
processes on the microscopic and macroscopic scales.
In the second and fourth lectures Planck shows how the new ideas of
statistical mechanics transformed the understanding of chemical physics.
The seventh lecture discusses the principle of least action, while the
final one gives an account of the theory of special relativity, of which
Planck had been an early champion.
These lectures are especially important since they reflect Planck's
reconsiderations and rethinking of his original discovery of quantum
theory. It will be of particular interest to students of modern physics
and of the philosophy and history of science.
