Search results
The ultraviolet catastrophe, also called the Rayleigh–Jeans catastrophe, was the prediction of late 19th century to early 20th century classical physics that an ideal black body at thermal equilibrium would emit an unbounded quantity of energy as wavelength decreased into the ultraviolet range.
May 22, 2019 · The ultraviolet catastrophe is the error at short wavelengths in the Rayleigh–Jeans law (depicted as “classical theory” in the graph) for the energy emitted by an ideal black-body.
Nov 24, 2022 · The ultraviolet (UV) catastrophe, also called the Rayleigh–Jeans catastrophe, is the prediction of classical electromagnetism that the intensity of the radiation emitted by an ideal black body at thermal equilibrium goes to infinity as wavelength decreases (see figure \(\PageIndex{1}\) )\(^1\).
Although the Rayleigh-Jeans law works for higher wavelengths \(\lambda\), it diverges as \(\lambda\) become low in value; this divergence for high frequencies is called the ultraviolet catastrophe.
This divergence between the results of classical theory and experiments, which came to be called the ultraviolet catastrophe, shows how classical physics fails to explain the mechanism of blackbody radiation.
What was the Ultra-Violet Catastrophe? This dramatically-named event came from a disagreement with experimentally measured black-body spectra and the spectra predicted by classical physics. Through experiments with objects very close to being perfect black-bodies, their emission spectra looked much like the diagram above.
Feb 8, 2024 · Max Planck solved the ultraviolet catastrophe by challenging the assumption that all vibrational modes with a body were possible, and that energy was a continuum shared between an infinite number of modes.
Figure 1 shows the wavelength distribution for sunlight. The most intense radiation is in the visible region, with the intensity dropping off rapidly for shorter wavelength ultraviolet (UV) light, and more slowly for longer wavelength infrared (IR) light.
Feb 1, 2021 · The Ultraviolet Catastrophe is a pivotal concept in the history of physics that exposed the limitations of classical physics in accurately describing the energy distribution of blackbody radiation, particularly in the ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Sep 12, 2022 · This divergence between the results of classical theory and experiments, which came to be called the ultraviolet catastrophe, shows how classical physics fails to explain the mechanism of blackbody radiation.
