Spencer Heath Archives

Item 98

Pencil by Heath on notepad paper. Originals envelope includes a page for photocopying.

June 15, 1955

A wave (spherical) is energy transformed from mechanical to radiant as by an explosion or collision or friction. The energy rate of this whole wave (spherical) is in units called quanta. The magnitude (dimension) of this unit is one erg per second times 6.6 x 10^-27.

Any small portion of a wave, say ¹/₁₀ will not have the energy of the whole wave — only ¹/₁₀ of it. It will thus take a train of 10 waves to make up as much energy as the whole wave.

If the whole wave had only one quantum, then 10 small portions per second (a frequency of 10 per second) will be required to accumulate one quantum.