Calculating Spectral Exitance for Planck's Law & Blackbody

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around calculating the spectral exitance of a blackbody as described by Planck's Law, specifically focusing on the average spectral exitance over a finite spectral band, particularly in the visible range.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to find the area under the curve for a blackbody's spectral exitance over a specified wavelength range and is exploring both numerical methods and integral calculus.

Discussion Status

Participants have provided insights regarding the challenges of evaluating the integral for finite limits and suggested numerical analysis as a potential approach. The original poster is considering these suggestions and is looking to deepen their understanding of the relevant mathematical concepts.

Contextual Notes

The original poster mentions a lack of access to computer software for numerical analysis, relying instead on manual calculations, which may limit their ability to evaluate the integral directly.

cant_stop_shaking
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Hello,

My question is in regards to Planck's Law and a blackbody:

For the single lambda case I can readily find the spectral exitance. Alternately, if I substitute to create an integral in the form of x^3 / (e^x - 1) and integrate over all lambda, I reach Stefan-Boltzmann. No problems there, but I am really interested in finding the (average?) spectral exitance over a small, finite spectral band. Any tips on how to go about this?

Thanks in advance.
 
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i am not quite sure what your question is, but it seems to me you are looking for the answer of this integral:
[tex]\int_{b}^a \frac{x^3}{e^x-1} dx[/tex],
the above integral has no exact solution... unless a=0, b=infinity, or a=b... the best you could do is use numerical analysis...
 
If you don't have a computer software to give you the result,learn that Debye integral ([itex]D_{3}[/itex]) values are tabulated...

Daniel.
 
Thank you both for your quick responses. To state my question more directly: "What is the area under the curve generated by a blackbody at some given temperature for some finite lambda range?" (Say in the visible region only.)

I can generate an approximate answer by using small increments of area and summing, but I wanted to compare my answer the solution obtained from a definite integral. However, from your answers I believe it is not possible (I do not have any computer software - just pencil and paper!).

I have taken your advice and will study more about numerical analysis and Debye integrals. Thank you again for your help.
 

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