Abstract

Radiation is energy that travels in the form of waves or particles and is part of our
everyday environment. People are exposed to radiation from cosmic rays, as well as to
radioactive materials found in the soil, water, food, air and also inside the body.
There are many practical applications to the use of radioactivity/radiation. Human-
made radiation sources are widely used in medicine, industry, and research. These are
widely used to study living organisms, to diagnose and treat diseases, to sterilize medical
instruments and food, to produce energy for heat and electric power, and to monitor
various steps in all types of industrial processes.
Index Terms
Radiation, Thermal Radiation, Emissivity, Absorptivity, Kirchhoff’s Law of Thermal
Radiation, Stefan-Boltzmann Law of Thermal Radiation, Inverse of the Radiation Distance
Square Law
Discussion
Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through space and may
be able to penetrate various materials. Light, radio, and microwaves are types of radiation
that are called nonionizing.
Thermal radiation, a type of radiation, is electromagnetic radiation in the infra-red
region of the electromagnetic spectrum although some of it is in the visible region. The
term thermal radiation is frequently used to distinguish this form of electromagnetic
radiation from other forms, such as radio waves, x-rays, or gamma rays. It is generated
by the thermal motion of charged particles in matter and therefore any material that has
a temperature above absolute zero gives off some radiant energy. Thermal
radiation does not require any medium for energy transfer. In fact, energy transfer by
radiation is fastest (at the speed of light) and it suffers no attenuation in a vacuum.
There are different equations and laws that will help us to determine how radiation
works. These are the Stefan-Boltzmann Law of Thermal Radiation, Kirchoff’s Law of
Thermal Radiation and Inverse of the Radiation Distance Square Law.

In Stefan-Boltzmann Law, it states that the total radiant heat power emitted from a
surface is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. This was
formulated in 1879 by Austrian physicist Josef Stefan as a result of his experimental
studies, the same law was derived in 1884 by Austrian physicist Ludwig Boltzmann from
thermodynamic considerations: if E is the radiant heat energy emitted from a unit area in
one second (the power from a unit area) and T is the absolute temperature (in kelvins),
then,
q = εσT4
the Greek letter sigma (σ) representing the constant of proportionality, called the Stefan-
Boltzmann constant. This constant has the value 5.670374419 × 10 −8 watt per
metre2 per K4. The law applies only to blackbodies, theoretical surfaces that absorb all
incident heat radiation.

On the other hand, the Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation, postulated by a German
physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, states that the emissivity and the absorptivity of a
surface at a given temperature and wavelength are equal.
For an arbitrary body emitting and absorbing thermal radiation in thermodynamic
equilibrium, the emissivity is equal to the absorptivity.

emissivity ε = absorptivity α

For Inverse Square Law, it states that the radiation Intensity is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance. This means that the intensity of the property
decreases in a particular way as the distance between interacting objects increases.
Specifically, an inverse square law says that intensity equals the inverse of the square of
the distance from the source. For example, the radiation exposure from a point source
(with no shielding) gets smaller the farther away it is. If the source is 2x as far away, it's
1/4 as much exposure. If it's 10x farther away, the radiation exposure is 100x less.

The intensity of visible light is measured in candela units, while the intensity of
other waves is measured in Watts per meter squared (W/m2).
Proportional:

I = light intensity (candela, W/m2)

d = distance from a light source (m)

Intensity at different distances:

I1 = light intensity at distance 1

I2 = light intensity at distance 2
d1 = distance 1 from light source (m)
d2 = distance 2 from light source (m)

With X, the quantity or intensity (sound, light, electric field) and d, is the distance
from the centre.
Some examples of the inverse square law are universal law of gravity, electric
fields and forces, intensity of light and radiation from a source.
The inverse square law is important as it gives a measure of how the intensity of
radiation falls off with distance from a source.
These three laws of thermal radiation help us to understand radiation and how it
works.
Materials
Apparatus:
TRTC Software Radiation Meter
TRTC Equipment Recipient with some Water
SCADA System Variable Slit
Plates with the Thermocouples