Thermodynamics and Radiation

Blackbody Spectrum

Show how the Planck function varies as temperature is changed. A “thermometer” on the right keeps track of the temperature. Some reference Planck function curves are plotted every 2 orders-of-magnitude in temperature to illustrate the shift in the location of peak intensity with increasing temperature. Also, the visible frequencies/wavelengths are highlighted with a blue shading.

download MP4:

blackbody.mp4 blackbody_wavelength.mp4

Random Walk

A demonstration of a random walk process. A number of small hops are taken in random directions, until the overall displacement is equal to the radius of the circle.

download MP4: randomwalk.mp4

Thermal Motion

A demonstration of the effect of temperature on random thermal motion. Many particles in a gas are shown at two different temperatures.

Note: for simplicity, we do not model collisions between the particles.

download MP4:

thermal_motion_normal.mp4 thermal_motion_hot.mp4