Examples of quanta in the following topics:
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- Kinetic energy can be distributed only in discrete amounts known as quanta, so we can assume that any one time, each gaseous particle has a certain amount of quanta of kinetic energy.
- These quanta can be distributed among the three directions of motions in various ways, resulting in a velocity state for the molecule; therefore, the more kinetic energy, or quanta, a particle has, the more velocity states it has as well.
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- Max Planck suggested that the energy of light is proportional to its frequency, also showing that light exists in discrete quanta of energy.
- Max Planck named this minimum amount the "quantum," plural "quanta," meaning "how much."
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- This division was challenged when, in his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect, Albert Einstein postulated that light was emitted and absorbed as localized packets or quanta (now called photons).
- These quanta would have an energy of:
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- It also led to Max Planck's discovery of quanta (E=h$\nu$), which links frequency ($\nu$) with photon energy (E).