- #1
Apophilius
- 14
- 0
I've been reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene and everything has rolled along smoothly until just recently. He writes:
Furthermore:
So here's my question. How does the ideal blackbody (which I assume the oven to be in this case) magically know what wavelength to emit to fit perfectly between the sides of an oven? Is it a property of blackbodies, or have I simply missed something here?
Brian Greene said:It turns out that when Maxwell's electromagnetic theory is applied to the radiation in an oven it shows that the waves generated by the hot walls must have a whole number of peaks and troughs that fit perfectly between opposite surfaces.
Furthermore:
Brian Greene said:Each of the allowed waves--regardless of wavelength--carries the same amount of energy
So here's my question. How does the ideal blackbody (which I assume the oven to be in this case) magically know what wavelength to emit to fit perfectly between the sides of an oven? Is it a property of blackbodies, or have I simply missed something here?