Classical physics predicted that a hot body must radiate infinite energy at short wavelengths, a result so absurd it earned the name ultraviolet catastrophe. The Rayleigh–Jeans curve shoots straight up, and only when Planck forced energy to come in discrete lumps did the spectrum bend back down to match experiment. The hotter the object, the further λmax slides toward the blue under Wien’s law while total output grows as T⁴: the Sun near 5800 K glows white, while the 2.7 K cosmic background barely whispers in the microwaves.
Classical physics predicted that a hot body must radiate infinite energy at short wavelengths, a result so absurd it earned the name ultraviolet catastrophe. The Rayleigh–Jeans curve shoots straight up, and only when Planck forced energy to come in discrete lumps did the spectrum bend back down to match experiment. The hotter the object, the further λmax slides toward the blue under Wien’s law while total output grows as T⁴: the Sun near 5800 K glows white, while the 2.7 K cosmic background barely whispers in the microwaves.
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