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Prior to Kirchhoff's studies, it was known that for total heat radiation, the ratio of emissive power to absorptive ratio was the same for all bodies emitting and absorbing thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium. This means that a good absorber is a good emitter. Naturally, a good reflector is a poor absorber.
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (German: [ˈgʊs.taf ˈkɪʁçhɔf]; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German physicist, chemist and mathematican who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.
(In contrast with Balfour Stewart's, Kirchhoff's definition of his absorption ratio did not refer in particular to a lamp-black surface as the source of the incident radiation.) Thus the ratio E ( T , i ) / a ( T , i ) of emitting power to absorptivity is a dimensioned quantity, with the dimensions of emitting power, because a ( T , i ) is ...
A key to understanding the greenhouse effect is Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation. At any given wavelength the absorptivity of the atmosphere will be equal to the emissivity. Radiation from the surface could be in a slightly different portion of the infrared spectrum than the radiation emitted by the atmosphere.
There is a fundamental relationship (Gustav Kirchhoff's 1859 law of thermal radiation) that equates the emissivity of a surface with its absorption of incident radiation (the "absorptivity" of a surface). Kirchhoff's law is rigorously applicable with regard to the spectral directional definitions of emissivity and absorptivity.
Thermal radiation is the emission of electromagnetic waves from all matter that has a temperature greater than absolute zero. [5] [2] Thermal radiation reflects the conversion of thermal energy into electromagnetic energy. Thermal energy is the kinetic energy of random movements of atoms and molecules in matter. It is present in all matter of ...
Kirchhoff's laws, named after Gustav Kirchhoff, may refer to: Kirchhoff's circuit laws in electrical engineering; Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation; Kirchhoff equations in fluid dynamics; Kirchhoff's three laws of spectroscopy; Kirchhoff's law of thermochemistry; Kirchhoff's theorem about the number of spanning trees in a graph
According to Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, this entails that, for every frequency ν, at thermodynamic equilibrium at temperature T, one has α ν,B (T) = ε ν,B (T) = 1, so that the thermal radiation from a black body is always equal to the full amount specified by Planck's law. No physical body can emit thermal radiation that exceeds ...