Deriving Stefan's fourth-power law

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The discussion focuses on deriving Stefan's fourth-power law, which states that the total intensity I(T) radiated from a blackbody is proportional to T^4. Participants are encouraged to change variables to x = hc/λkBT in the Planck distribution equation to facilitate the derivation. The integral over all wavelengths leads to a constant factor that is independent of temperature, confirming the relationship. The key challenge lies in correctly substituting and simplifying the equation to isolate temperature dependence. Ultimately, the discussion emphasizes that the integral will yield a dimensionless number, with all temperature effects captured in the constants.
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Homework Statement



The total intensity I(T) radiated from a blackbody (at all wavelengths λ) is equal to the integral over all wavelengths, 0 < λ < ∞, of the Planck distribution (4.28). (a) By changing variables to x = hc/λkBT, show that ¡(T) has the form I(T) = σT4 where a is a constant independent of temperature. This result is called Ste fan’s fourth-power law, after the Austrian physicist Josef Stefan.

Homework Equations



I(λ,T) = (2πhc^2)/(λ^5)*(1/(e^(hc/λkBT))-1)

The Attempt at a Solution



I understand that I need to substitute x into the equation and the easy part that I get:

1/(e^x)-1

out of the second part. However the first part seems to be just inflating the equation by substitution to which it will merely increase continually.
I did end up substituting:

hc=xλkBT

into the numerator to get:

=2π(kBTx)c/λ^5

just not sure where to go from here.
 
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You have I(λ,T) = A/[λ5(eb/λ- 1)] where A and b are constants which you can identify. b carries the temperature dependence.

As you noted, the total intensity is an integral over λ of this expression. Then follow your idea of a change of variable of integration to x = b/λ. When the smoke clears, you should get a bunch of constants times an integral over x. Don't worry about doing the integral, it will just be some dimensionless number independent of T. All of the T dependence will come from the factors of b in the mess of constants in front of the integral.
 
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