A CRITICAL REMARK ON PLANCK'S MODEL OF BLACK-BODY

We reexamine the model of matter–radiation interaction considered by Planck in his studies on the black-body problem, and point out that its consistency seems to be in doubt. The key point is that Planck's model deals in principle with a system of n material resonators interacting with the field, but in fact Planck actually deals with a single resonator, because he explicitly makes the assumption that the resonators act independently of each other, i.e. perform incoherent motions. We point out that it would be more appropriate to deal from the start with the dynamics of the complete system, and that, in view of the long range character of the electrodynamical forces, motions of a coherent or correlated type might thus be found to occur.