AP Physics 2 / Unit 15: Modern Physics
15.4 Blackbody Radiation
Notes
Hot objects emit a continuous spectrum. Hotter objects emit more energy and peak at shorter wavelengths (Wien's law).
- Planck's explanation required energy to be quantized.
Practice
A hotter star appears:
Peak shifts to shorter wavelengths.
As temperature rises, the total energy emitted:
Much brighter.
Blackbody radiation was explained by assuming:
Planck's hypothesis.
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