Philipp von Jolly

1809–1884 · German experimental physicist, Planck's teacher at Munich

Philipp von Jolly was an experimental physicist at the University of Munich and one of Max Planck’s teachers. Planck ran the only experiments of his career under Jolly’s supervision. In 1924 Planck recalled that when he asked Jolly about studying physics, Jolly said the field was close to its final, stable form. Planck went on to found quantum theory, so the advice is now remembered as a famously wrong forecast.

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“In physics, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes”

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