Question

Thermal radiation: Mostly based on Section 5.4.

i) Draw by hand the curves for thermal radiation for a star like the Sun and the Earth. The x-axis is wavelength and the y-axis is intensity/power (you do not need to put numbers on your plot). Please explain the dierence in the two curves based on Wien's Law and the Stefan-Boltzman law.

ii) The Earth produces thermal radiation at night. Take the temperature at the surface to be 50 F or about 283 K. What is the Luminosity of the Earth (in Watts)?

Answer 1