The Continuous Spectrum of Light

PROBLEM SET

1 In 1672, an international effort was made to measure the parallax angle of Mars at the time of
opposition, when it was closest to Earth; see the below figure.
(a) Consider two observers who are separated by a baseline equal to Earth’s diameter. If the
difference in their measurements of Mars’s angular position is 33.6′′ , what is the distance
between Earth and Mars at the time of opposition? Express your answer both in units of m
and in AU.
(b) If the distance to Mars is to be measured to within 10%, how closely must the clocks used by
the two observers be synchronized? Hint: Ignore the rotation of Earth. The average orbital
velocities of Earth and Mars are 29.79 km s−1 and 24.13 km s−1 , respectively.

7
7
6
7 6
5 6
5
4 3
4 4
5
Sun
2 3 3 2
1
2
Earth orbit
1
1
Mars orbit

FIGURE The retrograde motion of Mars as described by the Copernican model. Note that the
lines of sight from Earth to Mars cross for positions 3, 4, and 5. This effect, combined with the slightly
differing planes of the two orbits result in retrograde paths near opposition.

2 At what distance from a 100-W light bulb is the radiant flux equal to the solar irradiance?
3 The parallax angle for Sirius is 0.379′′ .
(a) Find the distance to Sirius in units of (i) parsecs; (ii) light-years; (iii) AU; (iv) m.
(b) Determine the distance modulus for Sirius.
4 Using the information in Example 6.1 and Problem 3, determine the absolute bolometric
magnitude of Sirius and compare it with that of the Sun. What is the ratio of Sirius’s luminosity
to that of the Sun?

5 (a) The Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission was able to measure parallax angles down to
nearly 0.001′′ . To get a sense of that level of resolution, how far from a dime would you need
to be to observe it subtending an angle of 0.001′′ ? (The diameter of a dime is approximately
1.9 cm.)

From Chapter 3 of An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics, Second Edition, Bradley W. Carroll, Dale A. Ostlie. Copyright © 2007
by Pearson Education, Inc. Published by Pearson Addison-Wesley. All rights reserved.
 The Continuous Spectrum of Light: Problem Set

(b) Assume that grass grows at the rate of 5 cm per week.

i. How much does grass grow in one second?
ii. How far from the grass would you need to be to see it grow at an angular rate of
0.000004′′ (4 microarcseconds) per second? Four microarcseconds is the estimated
angular resolution of SIM, NASA’s planned astrometric mission.

6 Derive the relation

! "
F
m = MSun − 2.5 log10 .
F10,⊙

7 A 1.2 × 104 kg spacecraft is launched from Earth and is to be accelerated radially away from the
Sun using a circular solar sail. The initial acceleration of the spacecraft is to be 1g. Assuming a
flat sail, determine the radius of the sail if it is
(a) black, so it absorbs the Sun’s light.
(b) shiny, so it reflects the Sun’s light.
Hint: The spacecraft, like Earth, is orbiting the Sun. Should you include the Sun’s gravity in
your calculation?
8 The average person has 1.4 m2 of skin at a skin temperature of roughly 306 K (92◦ F). Consider
the average person to be an ideal radiator standing in a room at a temperature of 293 K (68◦ F).
(a) Calculate the energy per second radiated by the average person in the form of blackbody
radiation. Express your answer in watts.
(b) Determine the peak wavelength λmax of the blackbody radiation emitted by the average
person. In what region of the electromagnetic spectrum is this wavelength found?
(c) A blackbody also absorbs energy from its environment, in this case from the 293-K room.
The equation describing the absorption is the same as the equation describing the emission
of blackbody radiation, Eq. ( 16). Calculate the energy per second absorbed by the average
person, expressed in watts.

L = Aσ T 4 . (16)

(d) Calculate the net energy per second lost by the average person via blackbody radiation.
9 Consider a model of the star Dschubba (δ Sco), the center star in the head of the constellation
Scorpius. Assume that Dschubba is a spherical blackbody with a surface temperature of 28,000 K
and a radius of 5.16 × 109 m. Let this model star be located at a distance of 123 pc from Earth.
Determine the following for the star:
(a) Luminosity.
(b) Absolute bolometric magnitude.
(c) Apparent bolometric magnitude.
(d) Distance modulus.
(e) Radiant flux at the star’s surface.
(f) Radiant flux at Earth’s surface (compare this with the solar irradiance).
(g) Peak wavelength λmax .
10 (a) Show that the Rayleigh–Jeans law (Eq. 20) is an approximation of the Planck function
Bλ in the limit of λ ≫ hc/kT . (The first-order expansion ex ≈ 1 + x for x ≪ 1 will be
useful.) Notice that Planck’s constant is not present in your answer. The Rayleigh–Jeans
law is a classical result, so the “ultraviolet catastrophe” at short wavelengths, produced by
the λ4 in the denominator, cannot be avoided.
 The Continuous Spectrum of Light: Problem Set

2ckT
Bλ (T ) ≃ , (valid only if λ is long) (20)
λ4

(b) Plot the Planck function Bλ and the Rayleigh–Jeans law for the Sun (T⊙ = 5777 K) on the
same graph. At roughly what wavelength is the Rayleigh–Jeans value twice as large as the
Planck function?
11 Show that Wien’s expression for blackbody radiation (Eq. 21) follows directly from Planck’s
function at short wavelengths.

Bλ (T ) ≃ aλ−5 e−b/λT , (valid only if λ is short) (21)

12 Derive Wien’s displacement law, Eq. ( 15), by setting dBλ /dλ = 0. Hint: You will encounter
an equation that must be solved numerically, not algebraically.

λmax T = 0.002897755 m K. (15)

13 (a) Use Eq. ( 24) to find an expression for the frequency νmax at which the Planck function Bν
attains its maximum value. (Warning: νmax ̸ = c/λmax .)

2hν 3 /c2
Bν (T ) = . (24)
ehν/kT − 1

(b) What is the value of νmax for the Sun?

(c) Find the wavelength of a light wave having frequency νmax . In what region of the electro-
magnetic spectrum is this wavelength found?
14 (a) Integrate Eq. ( 27) over all wavelengths to obtain an expression for the total luminosity of
a blackbody model star. Hint:
∞
u3 du π4
&
= .
0 eu − 1 15

8π 2 R 2 hc2 /λ5
= dλ. (27)
ehc/λkT − 1

(b) Compare your result with the Stefan–Boltzmann equation ( 17), and show that the Stefan–
Boltzmann constant σ is given by

2π 5 k 4
σ = .
15c2 h3

L = 4π R 2 σ Te4 . (17)

(c) Calculate the value of σ from this expression.

15 Use the data in Appendix: Stellar Data, to answer the following questions.
(a) Calculate the absolute and apparent visual magnitudes, MV and V , for the Sun.
(b) Determine the magnitudes MB , B, MU , and U for the Sun.
 The Continuous Spectrum of Light: Problem Set

(c) Locate the Sun and Sirius on the color–color diagram in Fig. 11. Refer to Example 6.1
for the data on Sirius.

B0
–1.0

–0.5

0.0 A0 Bl
ac
U–B

F0 G0 kb
od
y
0.5 K0

1.0

M0
1.5
–0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
B–V

FIGURE 11 Color–color diagram for main-sequence stars. The dashed line is for a blackbody.

16 Use the filter bandwidths for the U BV system in section 6 of “The Continuous Spectrum of
Light” and the effective temperature of 9600 K for Vega to determine through which filter Vega
would appear brightest to a photometer [i.e., ignore the constant C in Eq. ( 31)]. Assume that
S(λ) = 1 inside the filter bandwidth and that S(λ) = 0 outside the filter bandwidth.

!& ∞ "
U = −2.5 log10 Fλ SU dλ + CU , (31)
0

17 Evaluate the constant Cbol in Eq. (3.32) by using mSun = −26.83.

18 Use the values of the constants CU −B and CB −V found in Example 6.2 of “The Continuous
Spectrum of Light” to estimate the color indices U − B and B − V for the Sun.
19 Shaula (λ Scorpii) is a bright (V = 1.62) blue-white subgiant star located at the tip of the
scorpion’s tail. Its surface temperature is about 22,000 K.
(a) Use the values of the constants CU −B and CB−V found in Example 6.2 of “ The continuous
spectrum of Light” to estimate the color indices U − B and B − V for Shaula. Compare
your answers with the measured values of U −B = −0.90 and B − V = −0.23.
(b) The Hipparcos Space Astrometry Mission measured the parallax angle for Shaula to be
0.00464′′ . Determine the absolute visual magnitude of the star.
(Shaula is a pulsating star, belonging to the class of Beta Cephei variables. As
its magnitude varies between V = 1.59 and V = 1.65 with a period of 5 hours 8 minutes, its
color indices also change slightly.)