Chapter 29
Energy is Not Quantised

Energy forms a continuum because it can vibrate at any frequency. Only h is actually quantised, although because of Planck’s energy equation or E = hf, individual particles like photons can come in discreet packages of fixed minimum energy, making light at this level appear granular. In the visible range of light, this means a single monochrome colour for each photon.

Like a matter particle, each photon is quantised or comes as a single unit because the equation above, E = hf applies to an individual photon, and this led to the mistaken idea that energy itself is also quantised. But remember, only h is really quantised. Energy can come in any amount. It merely results from the speed or how fast each h is spinning. In other words its frequency, which must of course be a whole number.

Furthermore we don’t know why these particular amounts of energy have to have the values they have. Why does each fermion type have the actual mass it has? There must be a balance of forces of some type as we saw in the section on the electron.

More work is needed to be done here.

The Origin of Everything
(Online Edition)