[net.cooks] Black body radiation in net.kooks???

paulb@hcrvax.UUCP (Paul Bonneau) (11/15/84)

[Out vile jelly!]

Wow, this discussion is truly amazing!

Let's see if we can clear up a few things here.

1) Black body theory says that black objects absorb AND radiate heat better
   than more reflective ones.

2) A pot is going to get hot mainly through conductance of heat.  A silver pot
   will radiate less of that heat than a black one will.

3) A totally black object will stand out like a wad of peppercorns in your
   vanilla ice cream.  The contrast between reflective surrounding and
   something that reflects no light will be considerable (unless you kook
   in deep space :~).

4) The black element on a stove glows red when it's hot, it doesn't glow black.
   The wavelength of the radiation emitted by an object is a function of its
   temperature, not of the object's colour.

I still can't believe the ignorance prevailing in [net] journalism today!
For someone to draw the conclusion that an object of colour x can only radiate
light of colour x is incredulous!  This person should have at least have
consulted a basic physics test.
-- 
I'm a man!  I'm not a horse!		Paul Bonneau
					{decvax|utzoo|watmath}!hcr!hcrvax