MAX PLANCK. Einführung in die Theorie der Wärme (Einführung in die Theoretische Physik, Band V). Verlag S. Hirzel in Leipzig, 1930. Pp. VI + 251. Price in translation 10 German marks.

M. PLANCK. Introduction to the Theory of Heat.

The final part of M. Planck’s course of theoretical physics is devoted to the doctrine of heat. The fact that it is precisely the doctrine of heat that concludes the course of theoretical physics, and not the doctrine of electricity, as was most often done earlier, is explained by the requirements of the logical system, for the theory of thermal processes is built upon mechanics and electrodynamics, and not the other way around. In the four parts of the book, thermodynamics, the theory of heat conduction, the theory of thermal radiation, atomistics, and the theory of quanta are considered. The author emphasizes in the preface,

that the book under review is by no means a mechanical combination of excerpts from his earlier books Thermodynamik and Theorie der Wärmestrahlung, but was written anew. And indeed, quite apart from the fact that this book is considerably smaller in volume than the sum of the corresponding parts of the two books mentioned, it is arranged more elementarily than they are. But of course, in its general features the exposition in the new book, especially in its first and third parts, is very close to that in the earlier works. In the fourth part, simply and elegantly, yet at the same time rigorously and profoundly, the statistical foundations of thermodynamics and the theory of radiation are set forth.

The merits and distinctive features of Planck’s manner of exposition are well known to our readers, at least from his books available in Russian. The book under review may be especially characteristic of Planck, since it is devoted precisely to those areas in which his creative work has left an indelible mark.
E. Shpolsky