Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

Stefan-Boltzmann law: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

● anchor · a standalone construct Nearest construct by meaningblack-body radiationcompare the meanings
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Stefan-Boltzmannlaw1 CONSTRUCTStefan-Boltzmann lawSTEFAN 1879 · T⁴ LAW

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Physics

The fourth-power law linking a blackbody's radiated power to its temperature

Josef Stefan's 1879 paper Über die Beziehung zwischen der Wärmestrahlung und der Temperatur established empirically that the total energy a hot body radiates rises with the fourth power of its absolute temperature, and Ludwig Boltzmann derived the same relation from thermodynamics and Maxwell's electromagnetic theory in 1884, giving the law its now-standard name. The law states that the radiant power emitted per unit area of an ideal blackbody, a surface that absorbs and re-emits all radiation falling on it, equals a constant, sigma, multiplied by the absolute temperature raised to the fourth power, so doubling the temperature multiplies the emitted power by sixteen. Max Planck's 1901 theory of blackbody radiation later supplied a first-principles derivation and expressed the constant sigma in terms of fundamental constants, a value now fixed exactly in the International System of Units. What makes the law a landmark is its reach: with a single constant it ties a body's temperature to the energy it radiates, underpinning estimates of stellar luminosities, planetary equilibrium temperatures, and the calibration of radiation thermometry.[1][2][3]

Unit
Radiant power emitted per unit surface area, in watts per square metre (W/m²)
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Determined by measuring the total radiant flux from a heated blackbody or cavity radiator across a range of temperatures and fitting the fourth-power relation

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Nearby constructs

radiation3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three physical and biological constructstemperature4 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsalbedo3 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, three constructs

References

  1. Stefan, J. (1879). Über die Beziehung zwischen der Wärmestrahlung und der Temperatur. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe, 79, 391–428.
  2. Boltzmann, L. (1884). Ableitung des Stefan'schen Gesetzes, betreffend die Abhängigkeit der Wärmestrahlung von der Temperatur aus der electromagnetischen Lichttheorie. Annalen der Physik, 258(6), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.18842580616
  3. Planck, M. (1901). Ueber das Gesetz der Energieverteilung im Normalspectrum. Annalen der Physik, 309(3), 553–563. https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.19013090310

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