Physics 3101L

Fall 2014
Lab 4
Blackbody Radiation and the Stefan- Boltzmann Law

Abstract

In this lab we attempted to experimentally verify the Stefan-Boltzmann law. We

calculated the resistance of a tungsten lament by measuring an applied current and voltage. A
table of the normalized resistance and absolute temperature of tungsten was provided. We plotted
the data in this table and then used the results to determine the temperature of the filament by
varying the voltage and current and measuring the relative change in resistance. We plotted this
data and then used a fitting function to get the equation of the power emitted by the lament. We
determined that the emitted power of the lament is proportional to the temperature raised to the
4.192+/-.0216 which was within more than 8 standard errors of the accepted value of 4.00,
indicating that there is a source of significant error. The second part of this lab was a
demonstration of the Inverse Square law for the detector voltage and detector-lamp distance
(voltage being inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source). In this
experiment, our power index which is 1.6608 was more than one standard error from the
accepted value of 2, which shows the existence of a source of substantial error.

Introduction
Heat can be transported from one body to another by three processes: conduction,
convection, and radiation. Conduction requires a physical connection between the bodies and is a
process rather similar to the conduction of electricity; convection requires the presence of a uid;
radiation is the result of the emission of electromagnetic radiation by the exciting atoms on the
surface of one of the bodies and its absorption by the surface atoms of the other body. Since
electromagnetic radiation is transmitted through a vacuum, the two bodies can be completely
isolated from each other [1].
A number of physicist has studied the relationship between the temperature of an object
and the amount of radiation emitted. In 1879, Josef Stefan ascertained the law that describes this
relationship experimentally. Shortly later, this law was derived theoretically by Ludwig
Boltzmann. [1] According to Stefans Boltzmann law, energy radiated per unit area per unit time
by a body is given by,

Where R is the energy radiated per area per time,

is Stefans constant which is

is the emissivity of the material of the body,

, and T is the temperature in Kelvin.

By heating a tungsten lament by an electric current, and measuring the power dissipated
by the lament directly and its temperature indirectly, scientists should be able to demonstrate
the Stefan-Boltzmann law.
The inverse-square law is very common in physics and states that the strength of a
physical quantity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source of that
physical quantity [2]. By considering the lamp to be the source of radiation, and moving the
sensor away from it. Scientists should be able to demonstrate that the voltage across the sensor is
proportional to the inverse of the square of the distance between the sensor and the lamp.

Apparatus
The following main components will be used to conduct this experiment:
Tungsten Filament (a.k.a lamp): This lamp will serve as a high temperature source of thermal
radiation. By adjusting the voltage and current supplied to this lamp, filament temperatures as
high as 3000C can be obtained. The voltage and current supplied to this lamp can be monitored
using a voltmeter and an ammeter, respectively. These values can be used to determine the
resistances of the filament at various temperatures, which can then be used, calculate the
temperature of the filament.
Power Supply: This power supply will be used to operate the tungsten filament. IMPORTANT:
Do not exceed 13 V across the lamp.
Pasco Radiation Sensor: This radiation sensor is a thermopile. A thermopile is a devise used to
convert thermal energy into electrical energy. It has the same operating principle as that of
thermocouple. Actually, a thermopile can be defined as a number of thermocouples connected in
series. Generally, this devise is used in non-contact temperature measurement applications. A

thermopile detects the temperature of an object by absorbing the radiation emitted from the
objects surface. It was, originally, invented by Joule to increase the output signal of a
thermoelectric sensor; he connected several thermocouples in series and thermally joined
together their hot junctions. Presently, thermopiles have a different configuration. The sensor
consists of a base having a relatively large thermal mass, which is the place where the cold
junctions are positioned. The base can be thermally coupled with a reference temperature sensor
or attached to a thermostat having a known temperature. The base supports a thin membrane
whose thermal capacity and thermal conductivity are small. The membrane is the surface where
the hot junctions are positioned. The best performance of a thermopile is characterized by high
sensitivity and low noise, which can be achieved by the junction materials having high
thermoelectric coefficient, low thermal conductivity, and low volume resistivity. [3]
Multi-meters: Three multi-meters will be provided to measure the voltages, currents, and
resistances of the above components.

Experimental Procedure
The experiment was set up as shown in figure 1 [4].

Figure 1. The experimental setup (part 1)

A voltmeter was connected directly to the binding posts of the lamp. An Ammeter was connected
to the lamp to measure the current through. Another Voltmeter was connected to the radiation
sensor to measure its output voltage. The sensor was at the same height as the filament of the
lamp, with the front face of the sensor approximately 6 cm away from the filament. The sensor
was mounted on a stand and its position was fixed during the experiment [4].
We began by turning on the power supply and increasing the voltage until we observed
some current passing through the filament. We measure this voltage which was .455 V and we
also measured the current which was 1.391 A. Using the equation
filament at room temperature
of

, the resistance of the

was calculated to be .327 ohm after recording the value

, we increased the voltage across the lament in increments of 1 V. After every increase

in voltage, we recorded the current of the lamp and voltages across the lamp and the sensor. The
highest voltage recorded was 12 V.
In the second part of this lab, the experiment was set up as shown in figure 2 [5].

Figure 2. The experimental setup (part 2)

We fixed the value of lamp current to be 2 A. We placed the lamp at one end of a meter stick and
position the radiation sensor so that it is at the same height as the lament and a distance of 5 cm

from the lamp. We measured the voltage across the sensor as we moved the lamp in increments
of 1 cm.
The voltage and current measured in the first part of the lab are used to compute the
resistance of the lamp for each voltage. The temperature of the filament is correlated with the
resistance normalized by the resistance at room temperature. The measured resistances are
transformed into relative resistances and then to a temperature. We did this, by making a scatter
graph of the data of normalized resistance versus temperature, which can be found at the StefanBoltzmann Law experiment guide.

Figure 3. Absolute temperature of tungsten as a function of Normalize resistance.

We fit the data with a 2nd degree polynomial, we get the fitting function to be

This curve gives a formula which when the value of the resistance at room temperature is
input, will give a temperature at any resistance. Then, we plugged in the calculated resistances in
the formula for the polynomial fit to obtain the corresponding temperatures.

Results
The experimentally determined values of voltage and temperature, from part one of the
lab, are plotted against each other in gure 4. The first point of the data is excluded, because an
inaccuracy occurs in the low-temperature points due to the absorption of the radiation by the
glass lamp bulb. This absorption is more significant at the lower temperatures, where the
radiation makes up a larger percentage of the entire output [5]. By fitting the data points, of
temperature values greater than 1000 K, to a power-law form. From the fit, we get the values of
Stefan-Boltzmann constant, and temperature raised power with their standard deviations as
shown in this equation

Where P is the detector Voltage in Volts, and T is the lamp temperature in Kelvin.

Figure 4. Measured detector voltage as a function of filament temperature.

The experimentally determined values of detector voltage and detector lamp distance are
plotted against each other in figure 5. By performing a power function fit we get the functional
dependence of voltage

and distance

to be

Where V is the detector voltage in Volts and d is the distance between the lamp and the detector
in meters.

Figure 5. Measured detector voltage versus detector-lamp distance.

Conclusion
From the experimental data, with considerations for the error as described above, it can
be concluded that the Stefan-Boltzmann Law was verified for tungsten. The fact that the value of
the Stefan-Boltzmann constant for tungsten differed from that for a perfect blackbody, gives rise
to the conclusion that tungsten is not a perfect blackbody, but is rather greybody [4].

The power exponent was also deter- mined to be

which is within almost

nine standard errors of the accepted value of 4. This error is likely due to the fact that not all of
the energy supplied into the lament was radiated as thermal radiation. A signicant portion was
probably absorbed into the surrounding environment though thermal conduction. Some non-ideal
behavior will result from conduction of heat from the filament to the supports that hold it.
For the second part of the lab, the index power of the distance was 1.6608 which within
less than 2 standard errors from the accepted value of 2. We can say that we were successful in
observing that the detector voltage is inversely proportional to the square of the detector-lamp
distance. Therefore we can conclude that the farther the emitted radiation gets from the source
the amount of detected radiation decreases.

References
[1] Tipler and Llewellyn Modern Physics, 6th Edition (W.H. Freeman & Company, New York,
2012)
[2] Haliday, Resnick and Walker Fundamental of Physics, 10th Edition (Wi- ley 2013)
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermopile
[4] Physics 3101 Lab guide, Stefan-Boltzmann Law, (2014)
[5] Instruction Manual and Experiment Guide for the PASCO scientific, Thermal Radiation
System