Planck's Constant and the Quantum of Experience - Why Reality Comes in Discrete Packets, Not Continuous Streams

In 1900, Max Planck resolved the black-body radiation problem by proposing that energy is not emitted continuously but in discrete packets - quanta. The size of each quantum is determined by the...

In 1900, Max Planck resolved the black-body radiation problem by proposing that energy is not emitted continuously but in discrete packets - quanta.

The size of each quantum is determined by the frequency of the radiation multiplied by a constant - Planck's constant, h, equal to approximately 6.626 times ten to the minus thirty-fourth joule-seconds.

The constant is extraordinarily small. Its effects are invisible at the macroscopic scale. But at the quantum scale, the discreteness is fundamental. Energy does not flow. Energy jumps.

From one quantum state to the next. Know what I mean?With no intermediate states between them. The electron does not smoothly transition from one energy level to another. It jumps. Instantaneously.