black-body radiation - definition - thermodynamics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics

Definition: Radiation that would be emitted from an ideal blackbody. The energy distribution is dependent only on the temperature and is described by Planck's radiation law. Classical theories of the radiation emitted by a hot black body predicted ever increasing amounts of light energy at successive frequencies. This "Ultraviolet Catastrophy" was one of the inspirations for Quantum Mechanics, as it was resolved with Planck's idea of quanta.