Skip to main content

Blackbody Radiation as a Puzzle for Classical Physics

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

Heated objects emit a continuous range of wavelengths whose peak shifts to shorter wavelengths as temperature rises, a pattern classical physics could not predict.

Show

A metal rod glows dull red when moderately hot and shifts toward white as it heats further, its peak wavelength moving shorter.

Watch for

Classical theory's failure was severe: it predicted infinite intensity at short wavelengths, an impossible result.