Skip Navigation
Search

I2-04. Wien's Law Of Thermal Radiation

Purpose

To show that hotter blackbodies radiate with shorter wavelength radiation.

Equipment

Variac, light bulb and filter assembly with two clear 150 Watt light bulbs, red, and blue filters.

Images

I2-04

Description

A variac is connected to two identical light bulbs in parallel, which are viewed behind red and blue filters respectively. As the voltage is increased by the variac, the lights glow more brightly, and more light is seen through the blue filter relative to that of the red filter. Very little or no blue is seen at low voltages, whereas red is seen to be emitted even at very low voltages.

References

H. Richard Crane, The cold night sky, TPT 22, 284 (1984). W. G. Rees and C. Viney, On cooling tea and coffee, AJP 56, 434-437 (1988).