This law can be derived by using the equipartition theorem to determine the number of half-wave cycles that can fit within an arbitrary volume. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this law that predicts a radio spectral index of 2 in the long-wavelength regime. This law can be used to approximate the brightness temperature as inversely proportional to the square of frequency.
ANSWER: Rayleigh–Jeans law
[10e] The “ultraviolet catastrophe” predicted by the Rayleigh–Jeans law was fixed by this law of blackbody radiation that also demonstrated that the energy emitted by a blackbody is quantized.
ANSWER: Planck’s law
[10m] The Rayleigh–Jeans law holds when the energy quantum is smaller than this expression. The equipartition theorem states that each degree of freedom contributes one-half of this expression.
ANSWER: kT [or k-sub-B T; or k times T; or k-sub-B times T; or the product of Boltzmann’s constant and temperature; accept one over thermodynamic beta; accept inverse of thermodynamic beta; reject “thermodynamic beta”]
<Maryland A, Physics>