- In late October of 1911, a 31 year old Albert Einstein
went to an elite and influential conference
called the Solvay Congress to discuss quantum mechanics.
How elite?
Well, at the time, four of the 23 scientists
in the attendance had already won a Nobel Prize or two
and a further five would eventually win a Nobel Prize,
including Einstein just three years earlier however,
Einstein was still a patent clerk.
He couldn't get a job as a professor
and although his ideas about relativity
were slowly gaining traction, his radical theories
of quantizing light were roundly ignored.
So how did Einstein end up at this conference?
And why was there a conference
about quantum mechanics way back in 1911?
The answer has to do with a chemist named Walther Nernst
who had created the third law of thermodynamics.
What is the third law of thermodynamics?
Why did Nernst create it?
And how did a law of thermodynamics put Einstein
at an elite conference?
Well, I'll tell you, ready?
Let's go.
♪ Electricity, electricity ♪
Nernst was a funny character, small chubby and charming
but also stubborn within the notorious vindictive streak.
For example, Nernst was nicknamed Kronos
because the Greek God ate his sons
and Nernst ate his graduate students.
Although to be fair, Robert Millikan,
who was a former graduate student wrote
in Nernst's obituary that Nernst was quote,
"in the main popular in the laboratory."
Although even Millikan admitted that quote,
"In the academic world, Nernst always had a quarrel
"on with somebody."
Nernst was also known for his hurried sloppiness
and his office and lab quote, "always presented aspects
"of extreme chaos which his coworkers termed appropriately,
"the state of maximum entropy."
Entropy by the way is a measure of the disorder
or messiness of a system.
And yes, physicists have equations for messiness.
Despite his disheveled methods,
Nernst was very good at experiment
and even better at seeing the big picture.
For example, in 1897 when Nernst was in his early 30's,
he invented a new kind of electric lamp
and wisely insisted on a huge lump payment
for the lamp instead of a royalty.
Supposedly the next year Nernst went to the US
and that's Edison, how much Edison received
for his light bulb.
When Edison said nothing, Nernst gleefully replied,
"I got a million marks for mine,
"the trouble with you Edison,
"is you're not a good businessman."
Wealthy and famous, Nernst was free
to study anything he wanted to.
In the early 1900's, he decided to focus
on creating nitrogen based fertilizers
as the nitrogen in the air.
This was a common interest of chemists
at the time ever since 1898,
when charismatic English scientist with a fabulous mustache,
named William Crookes correctly predicted
that the current farming methods were depleting
the ground of nitrogen and with population growth,
they would soon run out of wheat and millions would starve.
Crookes then inspired that generation of chemists
by saying that quote, "It is through the laboratory
"that starvation may ultimately be turned into plenty."
Therefore, Nernst began examining
a lot of different chemical reactions
at different pressures and temperatures.
Nernst knew that at the lowest possible temperature
called absolute zero, the chemical terms he was looking at
should be identical as he has an equation
that the difference between these terms
equals the temperature times the entropy.
Remember, entropy is the measure of disorder or messiness.
However, in December of 1905, supposedly in the middle
of giving a lecture, Nernst said that quote,
"The realization pressed itself forward.
That it looked like these terms
not only became identical low temperature
but quote, "they invariably became practically identical,
"some distance before absolute zero is reached."
In other words, not only does the temperature go to zero
at absolute zero but the entropy goes to zero too.
Within a few months, this theorem was being referred
to as a third law of thermodynamics.
What in the world does it mean if the entropy is zero?
Well, as a biographer of Nernst,
poetically put it in 1973,
"The third law had transformed absolute zero
"from a state of complete rest
"into one of perfect orderliness."
Nernst called this a heat theorem although it was more
of a heat postulate as it was based entirely
on experimental data and not at all on any theory.
First, according to one of Nernst students,
the theory was quote, "Mainly regardless as a useful rule
"for calculating chemical equalibria.
Nernst was so excited about his theory
that according to a former student quote,
"The Nernst laboratory swung away from chemicals equilibria
"to an entirely new and strange aspect of physics,
"the world of very low temperatures."
Nernst then set up his own ad hoc hydrogen liquefier
which only work when the long suffering mechanic used it.
And even that was very temperamental once exploding
or burning or breaking the laboratory windows,
a wall and a poor mechanics mustache
is impossible to directly measure entropy of a system.
So Nernst and his team measured the specific heat instead
using the liquid hydrogen as a cooling agent.
Specific heat is the energy needed to change
the temperature per degree.
They soon found that every material they use seem
to have a specific heat, they went very low
at low temperatures.
In fact, they all seem to go to zero
as they approach zero degrees.
What does that mean?
Well, specific heat, as I said before,
is the same heat energy needed
to increase an object's temperature per degree.
If the specific heat is zero,
then the object needs no heat for the temperature
to increase which means that the object
will not stay at absolute zero.
In other words, not only is absolutely
the coldest temperature, there is no way
to reach absolute zero.
It is a limit but also an unobtainable limit
just as perfect order is unobtainable.
Nernst was more and more convinced
that he was on the precipice of a profound idea
but he was stymied by the fact
that he had no theoretical basis for his theories.
Then in 1909 or early 1910, Nernst became aware
of an obscure 1907 paper from a patent clerk,
Albert Einstein, the proof theoretically
that the specific heat goes to zero
but only if you use quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics arguably began in December of 1900,
when a friend of Nernst named Max Planck assumed
that light was created and little energy elements equal
to a constant h times the frequency of light.
Now Planck just made this assumption
to make a radiation equation work.
And wasn't even convinced that the number of energy elements
were whole numbers for quantum.
Einstein however, saw things
in a different light so to speak.
In 1905, he assumed that light was composed of quote,
"a finite number of energy quanta that are localized
"in points in space, move without dividing
"and can be absorbed or generated only as a whole."
Planck did not like the idea of light behaving
like a bunch of particles in the way.
Albert Einstein that he felt that light behaves
only like a wave and his quote described exactly
by Maxwell's equations.
Planck was far more interested in Einstein's third paper
that miracle year where Einstein created
the theory of relativity.
Planck wanted Einstein to focus on relativity
and ignore the quantum stuff.
But Einstein was hooked at least at the time.
Two years later, Einstein wrote a paper
where he decided to use Planck's idea of quantized light
to understand how solids emit and absorb heat.
In other words, Einstein derived the specific heat
using Plancks quanta.
This is the paper that Nernst like.
Einstein wrote quote,
"For although one has thought before
"that the motion of molecules obey the same laws,
"the whole for the motion of bodies
"in our world of sense perception."
We now must assume that the diversity of states
they can assume is less than for bodies
within our experience and can only assume the values
of zero HF, two HF et cetera.
Then in order to determine the specific heat,
Einstein made a model where he assumed
that the molecules were simple vibrators vibrating
in three dimensions.
He admitted that this was a very simplified model.
And because of that quote,
"an exact agreement with the facts is out of the question."
Nevertheless, the simple model he hoped,
will give scientists an idea
of how specific heat change with temperature.
From Planck, Einstein had an equation or the average energy
of the vibrating molecules as a function of temperature.
He then multiplied it by three times the number
of molecules, three for the three directions
to find the total energy.
Finally, he took the derivative of that energy
as a function of temperature
as derivative is instantaneous change
and Presto change he got an equation for specific heat.
The exact form of the equation is not that important
especially since his assumption turned out to be too broad.
And the man named Dubai had a more accurate model in 1912.
What is important is that in 1907,
the equation he got seemed to fit very nicely
with the data he had on him from other people's experiments.
Moreover, the specific heat went to zero,
isotonically at zero degrees for all solids.
As author Douglas Stone elegantly put it quote,
"Newtonian Adams had frozen to death."
At first, everyone basically ignored Einstein's 1907 paper.
As they ignored his pioneering 1905 paper before it.
He tried for years in vein to get people to accept the idea
that light behaves as a wave and a packet.
In may of 1909 he wrote a friend quote,
"This quantum question is so extraordinarily important
"and difficult that everyone should take the trouble
"to work on it."
Three months later, Max Planck invited Einstein
to give his first important talk.
Planck was probably hoping that Einstein
would talk about relativity
but instead, he talked about quantum mechanics.
Once again, pushing quote,
"A theory of light that can be understood
"as a kind of fusion of the wave and particle theories."
Years later, remember the audience were called
that this talk went nowhere as quote,
"The chairman of the meeting was Planck
and he immediately said it was very interesting,
they didn't quite agree with it.
Meanwhile, Einstein was still working as a patent clerk.
In fact, he didn't start his first job
as a low level professor until October of 1909.
And even then he wasn't well known
even among his own department.
This is when Nernst read Einstein's 1907 paper.
You can see why Nernst was so excited to read it.
Finally, he had a theoretical backing.
No matter how radical behind his theories,
Nernst wrote a friend quote,
"Einstein's quantum hypothesis is probably among
"the most remarkable thought constructions ever."
If it is correct, then it indicates completely new paths
for all molecular theories.
If it is false, well, then it will mean
for all times a beautiful memory.
Nernst decide he better visit Einsten in person
and see if he was a genius or craft pop.
Nernst was deeply impressed with Einstein
called him Boltzmann reborn, that's a big compliment.
And the effect on Einstein was immediate and electric.
A fellow professor observed Polytechnic recalled,
quote, "Einstein in 1909 was unknown in Zurich
"then Nernst came and people in Zurich
"said that Einstein must be a clever fellow
"with the great Nernst comes all the way
"from Berlin to Zurich to talk to him."
Einstein was ecstatic writing a friend quote,
"For me, the theory of quanta is a settled matter.
"My predictions regarding the specific heat,
"apparently being brilliantly confirmed
"and even Nernst has been here to see me."
In February of 1910, Nernst mentioned Einstein's 1907 paper
in a footnote and suddenly many scientists became interested
in quantum mechanics
and the quantum mechanical view of solids.
For example, before Nernst mentioned it in 1910,
there were no other papers
that reference Einstein's 1907 paper.
In the three years after Nernst referenced him
over 40 papers referenced Einstein's 1907 paper.
By 1912, even Max Planck tackle the issue
and prove that Nernst original thought
that the entropy would always go to zero
at absolute zero temperature wasn't true
if an object was a mixture of more than one component
which rewrote the third law to be,
the entropy of a perfect crystal,
goes to zero at absolute zero temperature.
At around the same time 1912,
Nernst created his final version
of the third law of thermodynamics
which is it is impossible for any procedure
to lead to absolute zero temperature
in a finite number of steps.
Scientists to this very day are still arguing
about the proper form of this law.
Anyway, back in 1910, Nernst decided
that he needed a big scientific meeting
to discuss quantum issues and to promote Einstein
and therefore his theory of the third law of thermodynamics,
he wrote to Planck but Planck wanted to delay writing quote,
"Such a conference will be more successful if you wait
"until more factual materials available."
The ever impatient Nernst turn
to a wealthy soda manufacturer
and scientific philanthropist named Ernest Solvay.
Solvay had as many ideas as he had money
and he was eager to be at the forefront of science.
Soon Nernst put together
the first international physics meeting ever
and had Solvay send out 19 invitations
hence to the top scientists in the world
and to bolster Nernst tweet them,
send an additional invitation to Einstein.
Nernst asked Solvay not to mention
that was quote the initiator of the idea of the conference.
Einstein received his invitation with mixed feelings
as he had just in the proceeding months
become completely flummoxed by quantum mechanics.
Einstein had been trying to rewrite Maxwell's equations
to include quantum terms and it found it intractable.
In fact, just a month before being invited
to the conference, Einstein dejectedly wrote a friend quote.
"I no longer ask whether these quantum really exists
"nor do I try to construct them any longer."
Einstein accepted the invitation.
It was just too big an honor to give up.
Although in typical Einstein fashion,
he wrote a friend quote,
"My Twaddle for the Brussels Congress weighs down on me."
After the Congress, Einstein wrote Solvay
a flowery thank you notes saying that the Congress quote,
will remain forever one of the most beautiful memories
of my life but he told his friend Beso his true feelings,
quote, "In Brussels they acknowledged the failure
"of quantum theory with much lemna mentation
but without finding a remedy and felt that quote,
nothing positive has come out of it.
But Einsten didn't know that his talk
was to have major consequences.
First, even the most conservative scientist
at the time started to agree with Marcel Brillouin,
who said at the conference quote from now on,
we will have to introduce into our physical
and chemical ideas, a discontinuity,
something to changes in jumps of which we had no notion
at all a few years ago.
Second, the attendees went home and talked
about the conference.
For example, one of the secretary,
Maurice de Broglie told his baby brother Luis,
who were called quote, "I began to think about quanta
"from the very moment, my brother gave me the notes
"from the Solvay Congress of 1911.
Also another of the attendees,
the great Ernest Rutherford went back to England
and discussed the meeting with his graduate student.
A nice Danish man named Neils Bohr
but before I get to Neils Bohr and the Bohr model of atoms
or Louis de Broglie and how he created wave nature
of all particles.
I first want to mention a funny thing
about the laws of thermodynamics.
For years, I've been teaching a trick
to remember these laws.
Namely, you can't win, you can't break even
and you can't get out of the game.
As immortalized by the 1970s musical "The Wiz".
♪ You can't win ♪
♪ You can't break even ♪
♪ And you can't get out of the game ♪
But Wait, why does this phrase represent
the three laws of thermodynamics?
And how did the end up in the all black retelling
of the wizard of laws?
That's next time on the lightning tamers.
Thanks for watching my video.
On a personal note, it's my birthday
so if you liked it, give me a thumbs up
and wish me happy birthday in the comments.
If you didn't like it, give me a thumbs down
and a terrible birthday in the comments, I can take it.
As usual, a big thank you to my patrons
who are always there for me.
If you want to join their ranks,
there's a link down below
and an extra thank you for Adams and Sporks
who helped me out with some of the technical issues,
his videos are really cool.
I put a link down below there too.
Okay, have a good day.
(mellow music)