Planck black body formula question

Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
3 replies · 3K views
telegraphic
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Hi all -- I had a question about the Planck black body / Johnson-Nyquist resistor temperature formula:

[itex] \[<br /> E_{\nu}^{2}d\nu=\frac{4R_{\nu}hd\nu}{e^{h\nu/kT}-1}\][/itex]

I'm just wondering why the formula has [itex]$ exp(h\nu/kT)-1$[/itex] in the denominator? I would have expected [itex]$ exp(h\nu/kT)+1$[/itex] as electrons are fermions...

Cheers
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Hi,
The formula you write is for radiation (photons).
 
Rajini said:
Hi,
The formula you write is for radiation (photons).

Hi Rajini, yeah I definitely agree that it's right for photons (Bose-Einstein statistics), but it apparently also holds for resistor noise -- in fact, I've written it in the form given by Nyquist in 1928 in his "thermal agitation of electric charge in conductors". So I guess my question is: why? Shouldn't electrons obey Fermi-Dirac statistics?
 
Hello,
Electrons obey the Fermi-statistics.
For photon Bose-Einstein (BES) statistics.
When you consider for radiation (photons) you use BES. So in the denominator of your formula -1 instead of +1.