Planck’s Constant

What Does Planck’s Constant Mean?

Planck’s Constant relates the energy of one photon (the smallest possible energy ‘packet’) of electromagnetic waves to the frequency of that wave, and is denoted by h. The energy and frequency in the case of photon energy are directly proportional to each other, and hence Planck’s constant is the constant of proportionality between them.

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Planck’s Constant is also known as the Plank Constant.

Techopedia Explains Planck’s Constant

The SI (International System) unit for Planck’s constant is approximately equal to 6.626176 x 10-34 joule-seconds, whereas in the small-unit metric or centimeter-gram-second (cgs) system it is thought to be approximately equal to 6.626176 x 10-27 erg-seconds.

Suppose that E is the energy contained in a photon and it is directly proportional to the frequency f of that electromagnetic wave, then according to the given equation:

Eµf

Or

E = hf

In terms of SI units, E is measured in joules and f (frequency) is measured in hertz, then:

E = (6.626176 × 10-34) f

And hence,

f = E / (6.626176 × 10 – 34)

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…