Understanding Plank's Law of Black Body Radiation

[Zman]

Plank’s Law which descibes black body radiation is derived from first principles so I am not quite sure why it is called a Law.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plank_law"

 

[ZapperZ]

There are other things to worry about rather than about a label we give to something. The term "law" does not give any implication about the degree of validity of something, i.e. a "theory" doesn't graduate to become a "law" upon a certain level of certainty.

Zz.

 

[jtbell]

Also, calling something a "law" in physics doesn't imply anything about how fundamental it is. Newton's laws of motion are certainly fundamental in classical mechanics, but Ohm's Law is not fundamental in electromagnetism, nor is Newton's law of cooling fundamental in thermodynamics.

The names that we give to equations and concepts are basically a matter of historical tradition.