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Rayleigh’s formula can no longer be applied to the blue and, more in particular, to the ultraviolet. The values should be almost infinite. Energy levels drop back down on each side of the measured peaks. Paul Ehrenfest would call this contradiction the ultraviolet catastrophe. This clearly shows the same flagrant mistake in contemporary science a 4 ta as the ones made with gravity. Planck solved this enigma by arguing that light is made of small “packets” (quanta). The vibrations manifesting the heat of a body do not spread in accordance with every possible value, but obey a spe- cific law. He laid down the formula that links energy E with frequency f — E=hf— where h is Planck’s constant and E/ is always h or 2h or 3h or another multiple integer of h. Planck’s discovery thus marked the beginning of the era of discontinuity. That is why, contrary to a widespread incorrect idea, quantum physics is not the study of the infinitely small, but of wave packets. Each atom can emit electromag- netic radiation in the form of quanta. Excited atoms change their quantum level and immediately return to their original state while emitting light. The color of this light depends on the atom in question, allowing us to determine the atomic spectrum by studying the type of light it emits during excitation. The frequency of this light equals the energy difference between excited state and fundamental state divided by h: (E1-E0)/h. It therefore requires a great deal of energy to emit a quantum at high frequencies, which is why particle accelerators increasingly demand energy to generate particles that do not exist in a natural state on our spatio-temporal scale. Since atoms are more or less energetic, we choose atoms capable of generating such particles for their high potential intrinsic energy. At large wavelengths, it is easier to emit quanta, for they demand less energy. However, these quanta do not contribute much to the spectrum. In other words, there are large numbers of atoms with average energy values (our classical material world) emitting large numbers of quanta. Hence the peak in the curve of a black body. We have seen three categories of objects sorted by degree of diffi- culty in generating and observing quanta and therefore by frequency range. However, the colliders used to discover high-energy particles all have one aspect in common: particle collision occurs when added par- ticles are increasingly accelerated to up the collision force. Energy is generated by accelerating projected particles. There is however, a less violent way: a gradual frequency change. Some exotic materials can be naturally transmuted by a change in fre- quency or amplitude as a result of constructive interferences. This is The secret life of atoms 271