Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity - Definition and Overview

Black-Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity:1894-1912 is a book by Thomas S. Kuhn, the philosopher and historian of science better known for The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Black-Body Theory, published by University of Chicago Press, 1987, looks at the early development of quantum mechanics through the work of Max Planck.

The major thesis of the work is that even after Planck arrived at his quantum treatment of the irreversibility of radiation, he still saw this work as a contribution to classical physics, not as a revolution. It was, Kuhn contends, Albert Einstein who saw the revolutionary potential of this mathematical innovation.