Black Body Radiation: Determination of Stefan's

Constant
Aim:

Determination of Stefan- Boltzmann constant σ .

Apparatus:
Heater, temperature-indicators, box containing metallic
hemisphere with provision for water-flow through its
annulus, a suitable black body which can be connected at
the bottom of this metallic hemisphere.

Principle:
A black body is an ideal body which absorbs or emits all types of electromagnetic radiation. The term
‘black body’ was first coined by the German physicist Kirchhoff during 1860’s. Black body radiation is
the type of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body at constant temperature. The spectrum
of this radiation is specific and its intensity depends only on the temperature of the black body. It was
the study of this phenomenon which led to a new branch of physics called Quantum mechanics.

According to Stefan’s Boltzmann law (formulated by the Austrian physicists, Stefan and Boltzmann),
energy radiated per unit area per unit time by a body is given by,

Where R = energy radiated per area per time, Є = emissivity of the material of the body, σ = Stefan’s
constant = 5.67x10-8 Wm-2K-4, and T is the temperature in Kelvin scale.
 Josef Stefan
Ludwig Boltzmann

For an ideal black body, emissivity Є=1, and equation (1) becomes,

The block diagram of experimental set up to study the blackbody radiation is given below.

figure(1)
 This setup uses a copper disc as an approximation to the black body disc which absorbs radiation from
the metallic hemisphere as shown in fig (1). Let T d and Th is the steady state temperatures of copper
disc and metallic hemisphere respectively. Now according to the equation (2), the net heat transfer to
the copper disc per second is,

Where A is the area of the copper disc and ΔQ= (Qh-Qd).

Now, we have another equation from thermodynamics for heat transfer as,

Where ‘m’ mass of the disc, ‘Cp’’ specific heat of the copper, dT/dt is the change in temperature per
unit time.

Equating equations (3) and (4),

Hence,

Applications:
1. Determination of temperature of Sun from its energy flux density.
2. Temperature of stars other than Sun, and also their radius relative to the Sun, can be approximated
by similar means.
3. We can find the temperature of Earth, by equating the energy received from the Sun and the energy
transmitted by the Earth under black body approximation.

Procedure for performing real lab:

1. Remove the disc from the bottom of the hemisphere and switch on the heater and allow the water to
flow through it.
2. Allow the hemisphere to reach the steady state and note down the temperature T1, T2, T3 .
3. Fit the disc (black body) at the bottom of the hemisphere and note down its rise in temperature with
respect to time till steady state is reached.
4. A graph is plotted with temperature of disc along Y-axis and time along X-axis as shown.
5. Find out the slope dT/dt from the graph.

Procedure for performing simulator:

1. Choose desirable values of water temperature, surrounding temperature, mass and radius of the disc
using the sliders.
2. Click the "Power ON" button and wait till T1, T2 ,T3 reach steady state. Note down its values.
3. Putting T4 button, click "Fit the disc'' option.
4. Note down T4 at different intervals of time till it reaches steady state.

5. Plot Temperature-Time graph and determine its slope .

6. Determine Stefan's constant ' ' using the given formula.

Observations:
Calculations:
Mass of the copper disc = ...... kg
Specific heat of copper = ...... Jkg-1
Radius of the disc = ..... m
Area of the disc = ......m2

Slope of the graph = ……Ks-1

Substituting the values in the given expression,

= …………………………… Wm-2K-4

Result:
Stefan-Boltzmann’s constant σ =……………. Wm-2K-4

1) A body which absorbs all types of radiation incident on it is called

2) The energy radiated by a black body is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature in..
3) According to Stefan’s law of radiation, R = Є σ T⁴ , where Є is called…

4) Emissivity for a black body is Є=1. For a perfect reflector it is…..

5) The SI unit of Stefan’s Boltzmann constant is…..

 Assignments:
1. Find the steady state temperature of the black body disc having radius 2cm and mass 7g at 450C
surrounding temperature, when kept initially at 280C. Hence determine Stefan's constant.
2. Determine the net heat transfer through the black body disc with radius 4cm and mass 9g, at 32 0C
when transferred to a surrounding temperature of 650C.
3. Find the steady state temperature of the black body disc having radius 3cm and mass 5g at 10 0C
surrounding temperature,when kept initially at -10 0C.
4. Determine the net heat transfer through the black body disc with radius1cm and mass 6g, at 00C
when transferred to a surrounding temperature of 100C.
5. Determine the net heat radiated by the black body disc of mass 6g and radius 4cm at 400C,initially
kept at 300C.

Bibliography:
1. Concepts of Modern physics by sir Arthur Beiser
2. Basics of Quantum mechanics by Ajoy Ghatak and S.Lokanathan
3. Matheen, Abdul. Heat Transfer Laboratory. City: Laxmi Publications, 2006.
4. Jiji, Latif. Heat Conduction. Berlin: Springer, 2009.

Weblilography:
1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan%E2%80%93Boltzmann_constant
2. www.engineeringtoolbox.com/radiation-heat-transfer-d_431.html