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Determining Stefan's Constant Experiment

This document describes an experiment to determine Stefan's constant using black body radiation. A copper disc approximates a black body and absorbs radiation from a heated metallic hemisphere. The disc's temperature increase over time is measured. Using the disc's temperature change rate, mass, area, and the heat transfer equation, Stefan's constant can be calculated as 5.67x10-8 Wm-2K-4. The experiment verifies Stefan's law relating a black body's radiation to the 4th power of its temperature, which helped explain real gas behavior at low temperatures not described by classical mechanics.

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104 views3 pages

Determining Stefan's Constant Experiment

This document describes an experiment to determine Stefan's constant using black body radiation. A copper disc approximates a black body and absorbs radiation from a heated metallic hemisphere. The disc's temperature increase over time is measured. Using the disc's temperature change rate, mass, area, and the heat transfer equation, Stefan's constant can be calculated as 5.67x10-8 Wm-2K-4. The experiment verifies Stefan's law relating a black body's radiation to the 4th power of its temperature, which helped explain real gas behavior at low temperatures not described by classical mechanics.

Uploaded by

avmg3636
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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.
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.
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 Td 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,

Procedure of virtual experiment:


1. Choose values of water temperature = 500c, surrounding temperature =300c, mass = 7.0g and
radius of the disc = 2.0cm using the sliders.
2. Click the "Power ON" button and wait till T1, T2 ,T3 reach steady state. Note down its values and
find Th.
3. Putting T4 button, click "Fit the disc'' option.
4. Note down T4 at the intervals of 5minute each till it reaches steady state.
5. Plot Temperature T4 vs Time t graph and determine its slope dT/dt.
6. Determine Stefan's constant using the given formula in equation (6).
Observation table:
Trial No. Temperature of hemisphere Average Temperature Time t Steady
Temperature of the disc in (seconds) temperature
T h= Kelvin, T4 of disc in
(T1+T2+T3) kelvin
/3 (Td)
T1 T2 T3
1
2
3

Calculations:

Mass of the copper disc = ...... kg


Specific heat of copper = 390 J kg-1 K-1
Radius of the disc = ..... m
Area of the disc = ......m2
Slope of the graph (dT/dt) = ……Ks-1
Substituting the values in the given expression,

= …………………………… Wm-2K-4

Result:

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

The Stefan’s law states the power radiated per unit time and unit area by the black body is proportional to 4th
power of it’s temperature. This law was useful to explain the behavior of real gases at low temperature which
was not explained by classical mechanics.

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