Blackbody Radiation

Glenn Elert

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Resources

Historical
- nobel prize
  - Nobel Prize in Physics 1904, Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt)
  - Nobel Prize in Physics 1911, Wilhelm Wien
  - Nobel Prize in Physics 1918, Max Planck
- planck distribution
  - Über Irreversible Strahlungsvorgänge. Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. (1899): 440–480. See the last page for Planck's original calculations of what we know call Planck units.
  - Ueber das Gesetz der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum. Max Planck. Annalen der Physik. Vol. 4 (1901): 553–563. Translated into English, On the Law of Distribution of Energy in the Normal Spectrum.
- Wien's displacement law
  - Die obere Grenze der Wellenlängen, welche in der Wärmestrahlung fester Körper vorkommen können; Folgerungen aus dem zweiten Hauptsatz der Wärmetheorie. Wilhelm (Willy) Wien. Annalen der Physik. 49 [285], (1893): 633–641 [open access copy].
  - Temperatur und Entropie der Strahlung. Wilhelm (Willy) Wien. Annalen der Physik. Vol. 288 No. 5 (1894): 132–165 [open access copy].
  - Ueber die Energievertheilung im Emissionsspectrum eines schwarzen Körpers. Wilhelm (Willy) Wien. Annalen der Physik. Vol. 294 No. 8 (1896): 662–669 [open access copy].
Miscellaneous
- Planck Law Radiation Distributions [java applet], Mike Guidry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- The Ultraviolet Catastrophe, A musical group with a physics-inspired name
Video on demand
- Brady Haran
  - Planck constant. Sixty Symbols. YouTube (2009). This is one of the most important numbers in physics and is "unimaginably small" — or does it just seems small?
  - Planck Length. Sixty Symbols. YouTube (2010). The planck length is unimaginably small.
  - What is the shortest possible time? Sixty Symbols. YouTube (2011). The planck time is discussed in this answer to a viewer question.