[dolimitless]

Hi. I know this is a pretty basic principle, however I'm fairly new to the subject and was wondering if anyone is able to give a brief 'layman' explaination of why, as Planck's law states, at lower wavelengths the blackbody radiation falls to zero rather than continuing to climb as stated in the Rayleigh-Jeans law.

I have read a number of articles but none yet seem to have a basic enough explaination to allow me to 'picture' the principles involved.

Anyone that can help me with this would have my eternal gratitude!!

Thanks.

[Phlogiston]

Hi. I know this is a pretty basic principle, however I'm fairly new to the subject and was wondering if anyone is able to give a brief 'layman' explaination of why, as Planck's law states, at lower wavelengths the blackbody radiation falls to zero rather than continuing to climb as stated in the Rayleigh-Jeans law.

I have read a number of articles but none yet seem to have a basic enough explaination to allow me to 'picture' the principles involved.

Anyone that can help me with this would have my eternal gratitude!!

Thanks.

The short answer is that Planck assumed that the energy emitted by a black body could only take on quantized values, whereas the Rayleigh-Jeans law assumed that energy was continuous.  The consequences of this, mathematically, are sufficient to let Planck's law avoid the low wavelength problems that the Rayleigh-Jeans law had.