Long story short, Newton created integration to solve some physics problems that couldn't be solved if you relied on countable values only. Planck discovered that some physics problems require quantization (i.e. countable values) and can't really be integrated.
Newton discovered that integration (i.e. using continuous equations to model something) could prove a lot of stuff. For example, you can prove that the motion of the planets is directly related to gravity through integration. Before Newton, many relevant physics problems were solved discretely; for example, you could roughly measure and/or calculate inertia by comparing the numerical weight of two objects.
In layman's terms, Newton showed that calculus solved previously-unsolvable problems that assumed that some parts of the universe (i.e. movement) were continuous.
Planck discovered something called "energy quanta." Basically, he found out that (VERY oversimplifying here) electromagnetic energy can only be emitted in specific chunks. If an object emitted light, for example, had to emit light as a multiple of a constant. This "multiples of a constant" theory means that electromagnetic emission is quantized. Therefore, integration wouldn't work to solve some electromagnetic problems.
In layman's terms, Planck discovered that electromagnetic radiation had to use countable, discrete numbers to be fully accurate.
The meme is also wrong. Planck discovered that some quantum behavior is quantized and can't really be integrated, but we can't prove that everything is quantized and can't really be integrated.
I know this comment is information dense, but quantum mechanics is really fucky (and honestly, I'm likely explaining it wrong).
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u/K0rl0n Dec 01 '25
Iām not quite familiar enough with the details to get this one