Thermal Physics 2013 Fall

Yih-Yuh Chen
Assignment 4
The due date for this assignment is Tuesday, November 26, 2013.
1. (20 pts) Consider the spectral radiant energy density ( ) of thermal radiation inside a
cavity. We let the cavity go through a complete Carnot cycle, ,
as we did in the class. Here, the isothermal phases and occur at a
temperature 2 and 1 , respectively, while and are adiabatic.
(a) Explain why, during the isothermal expansion process at temperature 2 , the heat
fed into the small frequency band is
4
( ) (2 )
3
One has a similar expression for 1 .

(1)

2 =

(b) Next, consider an adiabatic process. We assume that the radiation forms standing
waves so that, as we slowly increase the volume of the cavity, a mode of the
standing waves with the frequency slowly transforms into one with a slightly
lower frequency 0 . Let 0 be the initial volume of the cavity and 0 be the initial
frequency of a particular standing wave. Explain why
13

0 0

= 13

With

13

(2)
= 0 013

please notice that a small initial frequency band 0 will always be squeezed into
13

0
13
when the volume expands to . This fact will be of use later.
= 0

(3)

(c) Wien assumed that

(4)

[ ( )] + = 0

for an infinitesimal adiabatic change of volume . Here, = ( ) 3 is

the radiation pressure in the frequency band and + . Explain why this is
reasonable.
(d) Please integrate the equation of Part (c) to derive
( ) 43 = fixed

(5)

during an adiabatic process. In particular, we have

43

= (1 )

43

= (1 )

(2 )

43

Similarly, we have
(2 )
1

43

(e) With (2 ) = (2 ) and (1 ) = (1 ) , show that

(f) Use Carnots theorem 2 1 = 2 1 to show that

13 = fixed
during an adiabatic process.
(g) In summary, we have, for an adiabatic process,
=
=
=
( ) 43 =

13
0

13
0

13
0

fixed.

Show that is fixed, and the last equation can be recast into

0
0
0 4

= fixed,

0
0

or

0
1
3 = independent of ,

0

for an adiabatic process.

(h) Writing

for some function , please show that must take the form

( ) = 3

( ) (

for some function . Thus,

( ) = 3

which is what Wien derived for the spectral radiant energy density of blackbody
radiation.
(i) Treating ( ) as a function of for a given temperature, show that its peak
occurs at some frequency max which satisfies max = some constant. This is
one form of the Wiens displacement law.
2

2. Carter Problem 5-1.

3. Carter Problem 5-3.
4. Carter Problem 5-8.
5. Carter Problem 5-9.
6. Carter Problem 5-11.