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  • Discuss heat transfer by radiation.
  • Explain the power of different materials.

You can feel the heat transfer from a fire and from the Sun. Similarly, you can sometimes tell that the oven is hot without touching its door or looking inside—it may just warm you as you walk by. The space between the Earth and the Sun is largely empty, without any possibility of heat transfer by convection or conduction. In these examples, heat is transferred by radiation. That is, the hot body emits electromagnetic waves that are absorbed by our skin: no medium is required for electromagnetic waves to propagate. Different names are used for electromagnetic waves of different wavelengths: radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation    , visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays.

The figure shows a campfire. Some small logs are burning and the flames above them are visible against a dark background.
Most of the heat transfer from this fire to the observers is through infrared radiation. The visible light, although dramatic, transfers relatively little thermal energy. Convection transfers energy away from the observers as hot air rises, while conduction is negligibly slow here. Skin is very sensitive to infrared radiation, so that you can sense the presence of a fire without looking at it directly. (credit: Daniel X. O’Neil)

The energy of electromagnetic radiation depends on the wavelength (color) and varies over a wide range: a smaller wavelength (or higher frequency) corresponds to a higher energy. Because more heat is radiated at higher temperatures, a temperature change is accompanied by a color change. Take, for example, an electrical element on a stove, which glows from red to orange, while the higher-temperature steel in a blast furnace glows from yellow to white. The radiation you feel is mostly infrared, which corresponds to a lower temperature than that of the electrical element and the steel. The radiated energy depends on its intensity, which is represented in the figure below by the height of the distribution.

Electromagnetic Waves explains more about the electromagnetic spectrum and Introduction to Quantum Physics discusses how the decrease in wavelength corresponds to an increase in energy.

Figure a shows a graph of the intensity of electromagnetic radiation versus wavelength in nano meters. There are three curves on the graph labeled, from top to bottom, six thousand K, four thousand K, and three thousand K. The top curve peaks sharply at the beginning near about five hundred nano meters in what is labeled the visible range (violet to red). After the peak, this curve decays strongly by three thousand nano meters. The middle curve peaks more softly near nine hundred nano meters at a height about one third that of the first curve, and decays by three thousand nano meters. The lowest curve peaks very softly near one thousand nano meters curve and decreases slowly for higher wavelengths. The region between one thousand to two thousand nano meters is labeled the infrared range. Figure b shows two burners of a gas stove. One burner is closer and the other is in the background. The flame of the near burner is blue at the bottom and gradually changes to orange as you approach the top of the flame. The flame of the background burner is smaller and is essentially completely blue.
(a) A graph of the spectra of electromagnetic waves emitted from an ideal radiator at three different temperatures. The intensity or rate of radiation emission increases dramatically with temperature, and the spectrum shifts toward the visible and ultraviolet parts of the spectrum. The shaded portion denotes the visible part of the spectrum. It is apparent that the shift toward the ultraviolet with temperature makes the visible appearance shift from red to white to blue as temperature increases. (b) Note the variations in color corresponding to variations in flame temperature. (credit: Tuohirulla)

All objects absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation. The rate of heat transfer by radiation is largely determined by the color of the object. Black is the most effective, and white is the least effective. People living in hot climates generally avoid wearing black clothing, for instance (see [link] ). Similarly, black asphalt in a parking lot will be hotter than adjacent gray sidewalk on a summer day, because black absorbs better than gray. The reverse is also true—black radiates better than gray. Thus, on a clear summer night, the asphalt will be colder than the gray sidewalk, because black radiates the energy more rapidly than gray. An ideal radiator is the same color as an ideal absorber , and captures all the radiation that falls on it. In contrast, white is a poor absorber and is also a poor radiator. A white object reflects all radiation, like a mirror. (A perfect, polished white surface is mirror-like in appearance, and a crushed mirror looks white.)

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Source:  OpenStax, Abe advanced level physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 11, 2013 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11534/1.3
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