Ever wondered why some objects glow red-hot?

Black-body radiation

Ever wondered why some objects glow red-hot?

Imagine you're cooking and your pan starts to glow red as it heats up. Why does it change color?

As an object heats up, it starts to emit more energy across all wavelengths. This energy emission changes with temperature, causing different colors.

Example

At 500 °C, the pan glows red, indicating it's radiating energy primarily in the visible spectrum.

Remember this

The color change is due to the temperature-dependent emission spectrum, known as Planck's law of black-body radiation.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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