HIGGS BOSON!

{ WHAT IS A QUANTUM? }(Dec. 1930)
By PAUL R. HEYL, Ph.D. Physicist United States Bureau of Standards, Author of “The New Frontier of Physics”, Contributing Editor Scientific American

…“And Planck’s theory straightened out this discrepancy?”

“Perfectly. On the quantum theory we suppose that energy is made up of atoms or quanta. Less than one quantum can not be absorbed or emitted by a body, and all emission or absorption must be in multiples of this fundamental quantum.”

The visitor looked blank.

“It is something like our money system,” continued the scientist. “The smallest amount we can pay anybody is one cent, and any amount that changes hands must be a multiple of one cent. Now suppose your income was small, say one cent per hour, and that your creditors were pressing you. All you could do would be to pay out one cent now and then. This corresponds to the case of iron slightly heated. The influx of heat is not rapid, and the iron can emit only quanta of low frequencies—coins of low value. If your income was more rapid you might be able to pay out nickels or even dimes occasionally along with the cents. So as the iron is more intensely heated it is able to emit quanta of higher frequencies along with the lower ones.”…