Physicspunks
Tim May
tcmay at got.net
Thu Aug 16 23:08:27 PDT 2001
On Thursday, August 16, 2001, at 05:35 PM, Jim Choate wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, Anonymous wrote:
>
>> The photon discussion a few weeks back got me reading about cavity
>> radiation. I'm puzzled. Perhaps somebody can point me in the right
>> direction.
>>
>> For those who don't already know, cavity radiation is a surprising
>> phenomenon which required quantum theory to model.
>
> Actually statistical mechanics, not quite the same thing as quantum
> theory. But you can't talk about QT w/o SM.
No, Anonymous was perfectly correct in saying quanta were required to
understand black body radiation. Planck got the Nobel Prize for his work
in 1899-1900 on exactly the problem of cavity radiators (furnaces,
integrating spheres, black body radiators).
--Tim May
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