Physicspunks

[Tim May]

On Thursday, August 16, 2001, at 05:35 PM, Jim Choate wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Aug 2001, Anonymous wrote:
>
>> The photon discussion a few weeks back got me reading about cavity
>> radiation.  I'm puzzled.  Perhaps somebody can point me in the right
>> direction.
>>
>> For those who don't already know, cavity radiation is a surprising
>> phenomenon which required quantum theory to model.
>
> Actually statistical mechanics, not quite the same thing as quantum
> theory. But you can't talk about QT w/o SM.

No, Anonymous was perfectly correct in saying quanta were required to 
understand black body radiation. Planck got the Nobel Prize for his work 
in 1899-1900 on exactly the problem of cavity radiators (furnaces, 
integrating spheres, black body radiators).

--Tim May