Lab Experiments 112

KamalJeeth Instrumentation and Service Unit

Experiment-403 S

STEFAN-BOLTMANN LAW AND

DETERMINATION OF
STEFAN-BOLTMANN CONSTANT
Jeethendra Kumar P K and J Anil Kumar
KamalJeeth Instrumentation & Service Unit, Tata Nagar, Bengaluru-560 092, Karnataka, INDIA
Email: labexperiments @rediffmail.com

Abstract
Stefan’s law is verified using a 28mm-dia copper black body radiator and the
Stefan-Boltzmann constant is determined.

Introduction

Stefan-Boltzmann law is one of the most fundamental laws of physics which provided the
basis for development of quantum mechanics. The law was deduced in 1879 by Josef Stefan
(1835–1893) on the basis of experimental measurements made by John Tyndall and was
derived from theoretical considerations using thermodynamics by Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–
1906) in 1884. Boltzmann considered an ideal heat engine with light as a working medium
instead of gas. The law is accurate only for ideal black body objects which are perfect
radiators. It is also a good approximation for most ‘gray’ bodies.

This experiment has already been published by us [1] but in this paper we have simplified
the experimental procedure further by choosing a more perfect black body. Further, a
correction is applied to the temperature using the least square fitting which is a new feature
of this experiment. The black body employed is made of copper which is blackened by
chemical process, and appears more or like black in colour. We find that this is more
effective and consistent than the black body used in our earlier work.

Figure-1: 28mm dia black body radiator fitted with a 2W heater

During the 20th century, several scientists such as Lord Rayleigh, Wilhelm Wein, Max Plank,
Stefan, and Boltzmann used such a black body radiator and studied the radiation process from
it. In 1879 the Austrian physicist Josef Stefan using such a black body radiator arrived at an
empirical formula to account for the heat radiation emitted by it. According to him, the
energy radiated per unit area from a black body is directly proportional to the fourth power of
its surface temperature. In the form of an equation, it can be expressed as

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୉
୅
Į ସ …1

where

E is the thermal energy,

A is the total surface area of the black body, and
T is the surface temperature.
୉
୅
ൌ ı ସ …2

୉
ı =୅୘ర …3

The constant appearing in the above equation is due to the joint contribution of Stefan and
Boltzmann, hence it is known as Stefan-Boltzmann constant. Stefan’s law is very useful in
astronomical studies from which temperature; surface area etc. of celestial objects can be
calculated.

Josef Stefan Ludwig Boltzmann

To verify the Stefan’s radiation law and to determine the Stefan -Boltzmann constant
appearing in it, one needs a near-perfect black body radiation source. A light source
(electric bulb) is not a perfect black body radiator because an electric bulb produces both heat
and light radiation, the exact amount of which is cannot be accounted. It is difficult to
ascertain how much of the input power is converted into light and how much of it is
converted into heat. Hence one has to use a source which radiates only heat energy to verify
the radiation law. A near-perfect black body radiator is shown in Figure-1. It is made up of a
copper sphere of about 28mm diameter and an electric heater of 2W is fitted inside and
sealed by a heat sink material. The heat sink compound used acts like a binder between the
heater and the black body and it helps in transferring the heat to the rest of the sphere. A
digital temperature indicator is used to measure the surface temperature of the sphere. The
heater is heated by a DC regulated power supply. A digital voltmeter and ammeter records
the input voltage and current to the black body radiator.

The heater used in the experiment is a linear heater because its I-V characteristic is linear.
The efficiency of the heater is about 90% above 1W and the heater is operated above 1W
power. Above 1.8W of power, the heater showed slight deviation from linearity and below
1W loading is not sufficient, hence its efficiency is not guaranteed.

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Temperature of the Sun

Using this law, Stefan calculated the temperature of the Sun's surface as 5430°C which is
about 6% less than the presently accepted value of 5778°C. Similarly the temperature of stars
other than the Sun can be approximated using a similar method by treating the emitted energy
as a black body radiation.

L= 4ʌR2ıTe4

where
L is the luminosity,
ı is the Stefan–Boltzmann constant,
R is the stellar radius, and
Te is the effective temperature.

This formula can also be used to compute the approximate radius of a main sequence star
relative to the sun. Hence verification of the Stefan-Boltzmann law is an important
experiment in physics which is the gateway to quantum mechanics.

Error calculations

The error in this experiment is due to the error in the measurement of temperature or the
energy. Energy is calculated by measuring the voltage and current which is accurately
measured using digital meters. However, the heat produced at the center of ball requires a
finite time to reach the surface of the ball and, therefore, some amount of heat is lost in the
process of conduction from the center of the ball to its surface. Hence the temperature at the
surface of the ball and that at its center are different. To account for this temperature
difference, we employed the curve fitting procedure and determined the minimum error in the
temperature measurement.

Similarly, by curve fitting we obtain the energy for the case of minimum loss. These two
values for which both the energy loss and temperature loss are minimum should provide
accurate value of ı.

The error in the measurement of parameter X is given by

Sx = (X-X1)2 +(X-X2)2+(X-X3)2+(X-X4)2+(X-X5)2 + …

where

Sx is the error is error in the measurement of X, and

X1, X2, are the measured values of X.

In our case we have taken X as temperature (T). Similarly the energy per unit area (E/A) is
taken as Y. The error in the measurement of Y is given by

Sy = (Y-Y1)2+(Y-Y2)2+(Y-Y3)2+(Y-Y4)2+(Y-Y5)2 + …

where
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Sy is the error in the measurement of Y, and

Y1, Y2,… are the experimentally measured values of Y.

One can find out the error Sy by substituting the value Xs and Ys in the above equations from
which one can calculate when the error is minimum.

Apparatus used

Black body radiator experimental setup model BBR301, consisting of: 28mm dia spherical
black body radiator, digital temperature indicator, digital DC voltmeter, digital DC ammeter,
Digital stop watch (mobile) and digital vernier calipers.

Experimental procedure
The experiment consists of three parts

Part-A: Determination of surface area of the black body radiator

Part-B: Determination of σ
Part-C: Estimation of Error

Part-A: Determination of surface area of the black body radiator

1. Using digital vernier calipers the diameter of the black body radiator is determined as

d = 28mm
r = 14mm = 14x10-3m
Surface area of the black body, A = 4πr2 = 2.46x10-3m2

Figure-2: Black body radiator experimental set-up

Part-B: Determination of σ

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2. Figure-2 shows complete experimental setup used. Figure-3 the circuit diagram.
3. The electrical connections are made as shown in Figure-3.

Pre-heating of the black body radiator

Since it is a heating experiment, some preparation is needed prior to starting the

experiment. Further, a heat experiment requires certain time for heat to flow from one
point to other- in this case from the center of sphere to its surface, hence one should allow
sufficient time for the heat flow to occur.

I Black
Body
V Radiator

Figure-3: Circuit connections

4. Hence the copper black body radiator is pre-heated to 35°C by setting maximum
voltage in the power supply. Depending on the room temperature, it takes 5-10
minutes to reach a temperature of about 35°C. Thus pre- heating is essential in this
experiment. After the temperature indicator indicates a temperature above 35°C, the
voltage is reduced to 3.4V and a stop watch is started to monitor the heating.

5. The voltage is set to 3.4 volts which takes 15-20 seconds. When the stop watch
indicates 1 minute the temperature reading is noted

Voltage = 3.41V, Current = 0.335mA

Time 1 minute 2minute 3minute

Temperature (in 0C) 35.1 35.8 36.7

6. When the stop watch reads 1minutes after pre heating, temperature is noted. When the
stop watch reads 2minutes, temperature is noted again. Heating is continued and at the
instant of 3 minutes, the final reading is noted as shown above. For a given voltage
setting, temperature readings are taken three times at intervals of 1 minute. Hence to
complete one set of readings it takes three minutes. The temperature recorded at the
end of 3 minutes is taken as the temperature for a particular voltage setting.

7. When the stop watch crosses 3 minutes, the voltage is set to 3.6V and the current is
noted as

Voltage 3.62V, Current = 0.355A

After one minute, when the stop watch shows 4 minutes, temperature is noted again

Time 4 minutes 5 minutes 6 minutes

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Temperature (in 0C) 37.8 38.8 39.8

The temperature values are noted after each 1-minute time interval. At the end of 6
minutes the voltage is set to 3.8V and the experiment is continued.

8. The readings obtained are tabulated in Table-1. Voltage is varied till it reaches 4.2V.
Power is calculated and presented in Table-1 along with the temperature.

9. For each voltage setting, temperature is noted at the end of 1, 2 and 3 minutes. The
first two temperature readings are used to monitor the rate of change of temperature.
The temperature at the end of 3 minutes is taken for calculation. It is observed from
the Table-1 that the temperature changes at the rate of about 1 0C per minute.

Table-1: Temperature at intervals of 1 minute

Voltage Current Power Temperature °C
(V) (mA) (W) 1-Minute 2-Minutes 3-Minutes
3.41 0.335 1.142 35.1 35.8 36.7
3.62 0.355 1.285 37.8 38.8 39.8
3.83 0.376 1.440 40.9 42.1 43.1
4.03 0.396 1.595 44.3 45.4 46.4
4.20 0.413 1.734 47.7 48.8 49.9

10. Table-2 is generated from Table-1 as follows. Energy radiated per unit area (E/A) is
also calculated and presented in Table-2.

‫ܧ‬ ͳǤͳͶʹ
ൌ ൌ Ͷ͸ͶǤʹʹ
‫ʹ ܣ‬ǤͶ͸‫ିͲͳݔ‬ଷ

Table-2: Energy, temperature and Stefan constant

Energy E/A T (°C) T (K) T4 ı
(W) (W/m2) x1010 x10-8
1.142 464.22 36.7 309.7 0.918 5.05
1.285 522.35 39.8 312.8 0.957 5.45
1.440 585.36 43.1 316.1 0.998 5.86
1.595 648.37 46.4 319.4 1.040 6.23
1.734 704.87 49.9 322.9 1.087 6.48
Average ı 5.814X10 -8 W m-2 K4

Part-C: Error calculations

The error in the measurement of T is given by

Corresponding to the five trials, for five different values for X and Y, the error is given by

SX = (X-309.7)2 + (X-312.8)2 + (X-316.1)2 + (X-319.4)2 + (X-322.9)2

Sx = 5X2 + 499957.91-3161.8X

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š=5[(X2 + 99991.58 – 632.36X)]

Write the terms of Full Square

Sx = 5[(X-316.18)2 + 21.78]

From this equation, it is clear that the error is minimum when

X = 316.18°C, which gives

Sx = 5[(316.18-316.18)2 + 21.78] = 108.9

Similarly, the minimum error value of E/A, calculated using the above Equation is given by

Sy = (Y-Y1)2+(Y-Y2)2+(Y-Y3)2+(Y-Y4)2+(Y-Y5)2 + …
Sy= (Y-464.23)2 + (Y-522.35)2 + (Y-585.36)2 + (Y-648.37)2 + (Y-704.88)2
Sy = 5Y2 + 1748244.81 – 5850.38Y
Sy= 5[Y2 + 349648.96 – 1170.07Y]
Sy = 5[(Y-585.03)2 + 7383]
When Y = 585.03
Sy = 7380

Taking the two values for which the error is minimum, the value of ı is obtained as
ହ଼ହǤ଴ଷ
ı =ଷଵ଺Ǥଵ଼ర = 5.85x10-8

Which is almost same as the average value, hence taking the average provides an accurate
value of ı.

Results
The results obtained are tabulated in Table-3.

Table-3: Stefan Boltzmann constant

Parameter Expt Standard
-2
Stephen- Boltzmann constant σ (Wm Kelvin )4
5.8x10-8 5.67 x 10-8

Discussion

The value of σ determined from different trials is different. However, the average value of σ
obtained is quite accurate and consistent. This has been verified by experimenting with ten
different instruments. It was observed that in each case the average of five trials was found
to be the same. The ten results are

5.822, 5.742, 5.772, 5.694, 5.792, 5.798, 5.852, 5.872, 5.675, 5.775

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Equation-3 is an empirical formula which gives only approximate values; hence one gets
slightly different results in different trials. The formula was corrected later using quantum
mechanics.

Reference

[1] J Anil Kumar, Stefan’s law of radiation, LE Vol-2, No-3, Dec-2002, Page-57

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