Lecture 12. A. Thermal Radiation, take two!

THERMAL motions cause charges to ACCELERATE, producing RADIATION*.

A plot of INSTENSITY of radiation vs. WAVELENGTH is a BLACK BODY CURVE.

Although EVERYTHING RADIATES to some degree, we DO NOT see most objects' radiation -- at room temp., energy of this radiation is below the human visible range -- as a good web page on spectra illustrates*.

Perception of thermal radiation:

other web pages: http://www.vcu.edu/hasweb/phy/mod/116/xmp3.htm#3 http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/PlankRadiationFormula/index.html>