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I am reading the Ultraviolet Catastrophe and have come across this law. Here , it is written

They applied the statistical physics method to the waves by analogy with Maxwell's gas particles using the Equipartition of Energy ie. the total energy of radiation is distributed equally among all possible vibration frequencies . But there is no limit to the number of modes of vibration that can be excited as it's easy to fit waves into the container at higher and higher frequencies. Consequently the amount of radiation predicted by the theory is unlimited and should getting stronger and stronger as the temperature and the frequency is raised.

How did they apply equipartition theorem to the waves?? And how did the radiation(energy, right?) get increased as the temperature increased. Please help explaining these .

  • The equipartition theorem is a statement about distribution of energy on degress of freedom. It does not care whether the degrees are the motion of particle or the excitation of waves. Also, it seems you should read about blackbody radiation to see why temperature and radiation are related. – ACuriousMind Nov 24 '14 at 18:47
  • @ACuriousMind: Sir, I do know the equipartition theorem but only for ideal gases. I couldn't understand how did they apply it in waves . –  Nov 24 '14 at 18:53

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