black body radiation

what is the perfect black body?

• object that absorbs all the radiation that hits it

  • no radiation reflected / transmitted

• best emitters of radiation

what does the intensity and distribution of the wavelengths emitted by an object depend on?

• object’s temperature

  • intensity = how much energy is transferred in a given area in a certain amount of time

  • temp increase = increase in intensity of emitted wavelengths

how is the intensity affected by the type of wavelength?

shorter wavelength = intensity increases quicker

what happens to the peak wavelength (wavelength with the highest intensity) as the object gets hotter?

decreases