blackbody

[ blak-bod-ee ]

noun

, Physics.

, plural black·bod·ies.

1. a hypothetical body that absorbs without reflection all of the electromagnetic radiation incident on its surface and then, depending on temperature, emits its own thermal radiation.

blackbody

/ blăk′bŏd′ē /

1. A theoretically perfect absorber and emitter of every frequency of electromagnetic radiation. The radiation emitted by a blackbody is a function only of its temperature.

blackbody

1. An object that can absorb and send off radiation with complete efficiency — that is, it reflects ( see reflection ) none of the radiation that falls on it. The higher the object's temperature, the higher the frequency of the radiation it gives off.

Word History and Origins

Origin of blackbody¹

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

This idea produced what would become the blackbody curve, a graph showing how brightly an object emits light at different wavelengths depending on its temperature.

From Scientific American

You know, back then, back then it was the blackbody radiation.

From Salon

Courses on quantum mechanics usually retrace its historical development, during which physicists devised “a complicated patchwork of ideas” to account for experimental anomalies like the blackbody paradox.

From Scientific American

One of the well-known historical examples involves the discovery of the Planck spectrum of blackbody radiation, which could not have been explained by classical physics and which ushered in quantum mechanics.

From Scientific American

His best-known work included his collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularities, the prediction that black holes emit blackbody radiation, and the best-selling book A Brief History of Time.

From The Verge