all velocities, but there is generally a maximum limit. From the investigations of Lenard and Ladenburg, the curious discovery was made that this maximum velocity of emission did not at all depend upon the intensity of light, but upon its wavelength. The more violet was the light, the greater was the velocity of emission.
To account for this fact, Einstein made the bold assumption that the light is propogated in space as a unit pulse (he calls it a Light-cell), and falling upon an individual atom, liberates electrons according to the energy equation
hν = (1/2) mv^2 + A,
where (m, v) are the mass and velocity of the electron. A is a constant characteristic of the metal plate.
There was little material for the confirmation of this law when it was first proposed (1905), and eleven years elapsed before Prof. Millikan established, by a set of experiments scarcely rivalled for the ingenuity, skill, and care displayed, the absolute truth of the law. As results of this confirmation, and other brilliant triumphs, the quantum law is now regarded as a fundamental law of Energetics. In recent years, X-rays have been added to the domain of light, and in this direction also, Einstein's photo-electric formula has proved to be one of the most fruitful conceptions in Physics.
The quantum law was next extended by Einstein to the problems of decrease of specific heat at low temperature, and here also his theory was confirmed in a brilliant manner.
We pass over his other contributions to the equation of state, to the problems of null-point energy, and photo-chemical reactions. The recent experimental works of
