Black Body

[akroberts]

What exactly is a black body? What are some examples of what a black body looks like?

[juliasloan_4g]

Professor Lavelle said a black body is a hypothetical material that can absorb all frequencies of light (it's not real).

[Catherine Kim 3K]

According to the textbook, a black body is an object that absorbs and emits all frequencies of radiation without favor. The object that is heated, or the "hot object," is known as the black body.

[Sam Kelly 1K]

So does the concept of black bodies explain why objects go from being red hot to being white hot?

[Tony Ong 3K]

Do we have to understand the concepts of black body for the midterms? I don't remember Professor Lavelle going over this thoroughly or at all during class?

[Jeannine 1I]

I believe he mentioned in class that we don't need to know about black bodies, so I wouldn't worry too much about studying them. It's also not on the course outline!

[Ashley P 4I]

The professor said we do not need to know this for this course (14a) but might for later courses.

[Layla Manoochehri]

so does that mean we don't need to know about the Stefan-Boltzmann law or Wien's law?

[jocelyntzeng]

Nope I don't think we need to know those things

[Jeremy Feng 1A]

The sun is an example of an "almost" black body (since true black bodies do no exist) because it emits almost every wavelength of light.

[KaitlynBali_4B]

To add on to these comments, I would like to mention that black bodies absorb a wide range of wavelengths (unlike individual atoms) because the atoms and electrons in black bodies act collectively.