The Electromagnetic Spectrum

 The EM spectrum is the ENTIRE range of EM waves in

order of increasing frequency and decreasing wavelength.

 As you go from left  right, the wavelengths get smaller and the
frequencies get higher. This is an inverse relationship between wave
size and frequency. (As one goes up, the other goes down.) This is because
the speed of ALL EM waves is the speed of light (300,000 km/s).
 Things to Remember
The higher the frequency, the more energy the
wave has.
EM waves do not require media in which to travel
or move.
EM waves are considered to be transverse waves
because they are made of vibrating electric and
magnetic fields at right angles to each other, and to
the direction the waves are traveling.
Inverse relationship between wave size and
frequency: as wavelengths get smaller, frequencies
get higher.
 The Waves (in order…)
Radio waves: Have the longest wavelengths and
the lowest frequencies; wavelengths range
from 1000s of meters to .001 m
Used in: RADAR, cooking food, satellite
transmissions
Infrared waves (heat): Have a shorter wavelength,
from .001 m to 700 nm, and therefore, a higher
frequency.
Used for finding people in the dark and in TV
remote control devices
Visible light: Wavelengths range from 700 nm (red
light) to 400 nm (violet light) with frequencies
higher than infrared waves.
These are the waves in the
EM spectrum that humans
can see.
Visible light waves are a very
small part of the EM spectrum!
 Visible Light
Remembering the Order

ROY G. BV
red
orange
yellow
green
blue
violet
Ultraviolet Light: Wavelengths range from 400 nm to
50 nm; the frequency (and therefore the energy) is
high enough with UV rays to penetrate living cells
and cause them damage.

Although we cannot see UV light, bees, bats, butterflies,

some small rodents and birds can.
UV on our skin produces vitamin D in our bodies. Too
much UV can lead to sunburn and skin cancer. UV rays
are easily blocked by clothing.
Used for sterilization because they kill bacteria.
X-Rays: Wavelengths from 10 nm to .001 nm.
These rays have enough energy to penetrate
deep into tissues and cause damage to cells;
are stopped by dense materials, such as bone.

Used to look at solid structures, such as bones and

bridges (for cracks), and for treatment of cancer.
Gamma Rays: Carry the most energy and have
the shortest wavelengths, less than one
trillionth of a meter (10-12).
Gamma rays have enough energy to go through
most materials easily; you would need a 3-4 ft thick
concrete wall to stop them!

Gamma rays are released

by nuclear reactions in
nuclear power plants, by
nuclear bombs, and by
naturally occurring
elements on Earth.
Sometimes used in the
treatment of cancers.
 Gamma Rays

This picture is a
“scintigram” 
It shows an asthmatic
person’s lungs.

The patient was given a slightly radioactive gas to

breath, and the picture was taken using a gamma
camera to detect the radiation.
The colors show the air flow in the lungs.
Basic Laws of Radiation

1) All objects emit radiant energy.

2) Hotter objects emit more energy than colder

objects. The amount of energy radiated is
proportional to the temperature of the object
raised to the fourth power.
Basic Laws of Radiation

1) All objects emit radiant energy.

2) Hotter objects emit more energy than colder

objects. The amount of energy radiated is
proportional to the temperature of the object
raised to the fourth power.

 This is the Stefan Boltzmann Law

F =  T4

F = flux of energy (W/m2)

T = temperature (K)
 = 5.67 x 10-8 W/m2K4 (a constant)
 Scientific Notation

10 = 101
100 = 102
1,000 = 103

1,000,000 = 106

1,000,000,000,000 = 1012
Basic Laws of Radiation

1) All objects emit radiant energy.

2) Hotter objects emit more energy than colder

objects (per unit area). The amount of energy
radiated is proportional to the temperature of
the object.

3) The hotter the object, the shorter the

wavelength () of emitted energy.
Basic Laws of Radiation

1) All objects emit radiant energy.

2) Hotter objects emit more energy than colder

objects (per unit area). The amount of energy
radiated is proportional to the temperature of
the object.

3) The hotter the object, the shorter the

wavelength () of emitted energy.

This is Wien’s Law

max  3000 m
T(K)
 Stefan-Boltzmann law

F =  T4

F = flux of energy (W/m2)

T = temperature (K)
 = 5.67 x 10-8 W/m2K4
(a constant)

 Wien’s law

max  3000 m
T(K)
We can use these equations to calculate properties of energy
radiating from the Sun and the Earth.

6,000 K 300 K
 T max region in F
spectrum
(K) (m) (W/m2)

Sun 6000

Earth 300
 T max region in F
spectrum
(K) (m) (W/m2)

Sun 6000 0.5

Earth 300 10

Wien’s law: max  3000 m

T(K)
 Electromagnetic Spectrum

visible
microwaves infrared light ultraviolet x-rays

1000 100 10 1 0.1 0.01

Low High
Energy Energy
 (m)
 T max region in F
spectrum
(K) (m) (W/m2)

Sun 6000 0.5 Visible

(yellow?)

Earth 300 10 infrared

• Blue light from the Sun is removed from the beam
by Rayleigh scattering, so the Sun appears yellow
when viewed from Earth’s surface even though its
radiation peaks in the green
 T max region in F
spectrum
(K) (m) (W/m2)

Sun 6000 0.5 Visible

(green)

Earth 300 10 infrared

 T max region in F
spectrum
(K) (m) (W/m2)

Sun 6000 0.5 Visible 7 x 107

(green)

Earth 300 10 infrared 460

Stefan-Boltzmann law: F =  T4
Solar Radiation: The driving factor
• Radiation (Electromagnetic
energy) released, absorbed &
reflected by all things
• travels as both a particle and
a wave
• is affected by
- gravity, magnetism, and
atmosphere composition,
distance, angle of incidence
• provides Earth with an
external source of energy
Chromosphere
A wide (up to 1,000,000 km) but variable zone of burning
gases above the photosphere
The gases in this zone move at high velocities and travel
outward from the sun as the solar wind
Also the zone within which sun spots and solar flares
occur
Sun spots are cooler regions on the sun’s surface zones
of intense magnetic disturbance
Flares are explosive eruptions of atomic particles and
radiation that extend outward for millions of miles and can
influence stuff 100’s of millions of miles away
 Sun spots

Solar Corona Solar Photosphere

What happens to solar radiation? It decreases with distance traveled outward
Inverse square law
Frec = F (1/d2)
where F = radiation from Sun
Frec = Radiation received
and d = distance from source
d is in astronomical unit (AU) or distance
from Sun to Earth = 1
Our distance from the sun controls how much
solar energy we get from the Sun
Frec is very small 1/2,000,000,000 of the total energy produced by the
Sun

Several things can happen to that incoming energy

Reflection, Refraction, Scattering, Absorption
How much energy does the Earth receive?

Earth--->
<---Radius (d)

<---Sun

Imagine a sphere with a radius (d) the distance from the Earth to the
center of the Sun = 1 AU
Position affects radiation too
Tilted
• Far away=less
away=less radiation in North
radiation
• Titled toward= more radiation in North
Milankovitch Orbital variations
Eccentricity - change of Earth’s orbit around
the Sun from a Circle to an Ellipse. Timeframe:
100,000 years
Obliquity- Change in the tilt of the Earth’s axis
of daily rotation. Timeframe: 41,000 yrs
Precession- the wobble of earths tilt or the
change in the timing of the tilt of the Earth
that forces the northern hemisphere toward the
sun- at perihelion vs aphelion 22,000 - to
26,000 years
These work with other systems in the earth to
set the pace of climate change
 *
Albedo
Albedo = reflected radiation
________________
incident radiation

• A measure of the amount of reflected radiation

• Some things reflect radiation better than others
- "dry" or "cold" Snow & Ice = high albedo
- water = moderate for visible, low for infrared
- plants= moderate for visible
• Land absorbs and releases radiative energy
quicker than water
Typical albedos of various surfaces to incoming solar radiation
Type of surface Percent reflected energy (Albedo)
Fresh Snow 75 - 95%
Old Snow 30 - 40%
Water
0° 99%
10° 35%
30° 6%
90° 2%
Clouds
Cumulus 70 - 90%
Stratus 60 - 84%
Cirrus 44 - 50%
Forest 5 - 20%
Grass 10 - 20%
Sand 35 - 45%
Plowed soil 5 - 25%
Crops 3 - 15%
Concrete 17 - 27%
Earth as a Planet 30%
Reflection
energy is bounced away without being absorbed or
transformed
Scattering
energy is diffused or scattered into different
wavelengths
related to composition and thickness of atmosphere
Absorption
some gases and aerosols capture (absorb) energy
energy is typically re-released as longer wavelength
radiative energy
Transmissivity
The amount of radiation that actually gets through
to the surface
Greenhouse effect
Seen as a bad thing by the public because of biased (both the left and
the right) or poorly produced media coverage
Greenhouse effect is absolutely essential to Earth’s habitability
Without some means to absorb, block, scatter or transform energy, the
Earth would be barren.
Atmosphere does all four things
Most important among these is absorption of longwave (Earth-reemitted
or transformed) radiation
Various gases capture this energy which warms the Earth’s atmosphere
Distribution of energy

An energy energy budget example

 Latent Heat
When a solid melts or a liquid boils,
energy must be added but the
temperature remains constant! (This
can be explained by considering that it
takes energy to break the bonds holding
the material together.)
The amount of energy it takes to melt or
boil a certain amount of material is
called a latent heat.
 Heat Transfer
There are four ways of moving heat:
Evaporation :(using latent heat - we’ve
already looked at this)
Convection :(moving heat with a material)
Conduction: (moving heat through a
material)
Radiation :We’ll develop equations for
conduction and radiation and talk about
convection.
 Heat Transfer: Convection
Heat Transfer by Convection is when you
heat some material and then move that
material containing the heat.
The amount of heat energy moved depends
on the heat in the material (heat capacity
times amount of material times the temperature
difference) and how much material you
move per time.
The blood and hot air furnaces use this
method.
 Heat Transfer: Conduction
Heat will flow through a solid material
from the hot end to the cold end. What
is flowing? No matter is flowing!
We can think of energy as flowing in this
case! We measure the flow of energy
as power: 1 Watt = 1 Joule/sec .
 Radiation: Reflected Light
versus
Emitted Light
Some objects, like the moon, can be seen by the light
they reflect (from the sun). Other objects can be
seen by the light that they create, like the sun. How
do we tell the difference, and how do we analyze the
light created (emitted)? First, consider this:
A BLACK object absorbs all the light incident on it.
A WHITE object reflects all the light incident on it,
usually in a diffuse way rather than in a specular
(mirror-like) way.

black white - diffuse white - specular

 The First Law of Thermodynamics
The first law of thermodynamics, also known as Law of Conservation
of Energy, states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed;
energy can only be transferred or changed from one form to another.
For example, turning on a light would seem to produce energy;
however, it is electrical energy that is converted.
A way of expressing the first law of thermodynamics is that any
change in the internal energy (∆E) of a system is given by the sum of
the heat (q) that flows across its boundaries and the work (w) done on
the system by the surroundings:
Delta E = q + w
This law says that there are two kinds of processes, heat and work,
that can lead to a change in the internal energy of a system. Since
both heat and work can be measured and quantified, this is the same
as saying that any change in the energy of a system must result in a
corresponding change in the energy of the surroundings outside the
system. In other words, energy cannot be created or destroyed. If
heat flows into a system or the surroundings do work on it, the internal
energy increases and the sign of q and w are positive. Conversely,
heat flow out of the system or work done by the system (on the
surroundings) will be at the expense of the internal energy, and q and
w will therefore be negative.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics says that the entropy of any
isolated system always increases. Isolated systems spontaneously
evolve towards thermal equilibrium—the state of maximum entropy
of the system. More simply put: the entropy of the universe (the
ultimate isolated system) only increases and never decreases.
A simple way to think of the second law of thermodynamics is that a
room, if not cleaned and tidied, will invariably become more messy
and disorderly with time – regardless of how careful one is to keep it
clean. When the room is cleaned, its entropy decreases, but the
effort to clean it has resulted in an increase in entropy outside the
room that exceeds the entropy lost.

The Third Law of Thermodynamics

The third law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system
approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches
absolute zero. The entropy of a system at absolute zero is typically
zero, and in all cases is determined only by the number of different
ground states it has. Specifically, the entropy of a pure crystalline
substance (perfect order) at absolute zero temperature is zero. This
statement holds true if the perfect crystal has only one state with
minimum energy.
 The Carnot Cycle
• Idealized thermodynamic cycle consisting of four reversible processes
(working fluid can be any substance):
• The four steps for a Carnot Heat Engine are:
 Reversible isothermal expansion (1-2, TH= constant)
 Reversible adiabatic expansion (2-3, Q = 0, THTL)
 Reversible isothermal compression (3-4, TL=constant)
 Reversible adiabatic compression (4-1, Q=0, TLTH)

1-2 2-3 3-4 4-1 Carnot cylce.ppt

Modified 10/9/02
 The Carnot Cycle (cont’d)
Work done by the gas =  PdV, i.e. area
under the process curve 1-2-3.

1 dV>0 from 1-2-3

PdV>0
2

Work done on gas = PdV, area under the

process curve 3-4-1
subtract
1
Net work 1 Since dV<0
2 PdV<0

2
4 3 3
 The Carnot Principles/Corollaries

1. The efficiency of an irreversible, i.e. a real, heat engine is always less than the
efficiency of a reversible one operating between the same two reservoirs. hth, irrev
< hth, rev

2. The efficiencies of all reversible heat engines operating between the same two
thermal reservoirs are the same. (hth, rev)A= (hth, rev)B

• Both of the above statements can be demonstrated using the second law (K-P
statement and C-statement). Therefore, the Carnot heat engine defines the
maximum efficiency any practical heat engine can (hope to) achieve. (see
YAC: 5.8, for proof)

• Thermal efficiency hth=Wnet/QH=1-(QL/QH) = f(TL,TH)

• In the next slide we will show that hth=1-(QL/QH)=1-(TL/TH).
• This relationship is often called the Carnot efficiency since it is usually
defined in terms of a Carnot Heat Engine .
 Carnot Efficiency
Consider an ideal gas undergoing a Carnot cycle between two temperatures TH
and TL.

 1 to 2, isothermal expansion, DU12 = 0

QH = Q12 = W12 = PdV = mRTHln(V2/V1) (1)
 2 to 3, adiabatic expansion, Q23 = 0
(TL/TH) = (V2/V3)k-1 (2)
 3 to 4, isothermal compression, DU34 = 0
QL = Q34 = W34 = - mRTLln(V4/V3) (3)
 4 to 1, adiabatic compression, Q41 = 0
(TL/TH) = (V1/V4)k-1 (4)

From (2) & (4): (V2/V3) = (V1/V4)  (V2/V1) = (V3/V4)

Since ln(V2/V1) = - ln(V4/V3); substituting for ln(V4/V3) in (1)
 (QL/QH )= (TL/TH)
Hence: hth = 1-(QL/QH )= 1-(TL/TH)

It has been proven that hth = 1-(QL/QH )= 1-(TL/TH) for all Carnot engines since
the Carnot efficiency is independent of the working substance.

Example: A typical steam power plant operates between TH=800 K (boiler) and
TL=300 K(cooling tower). For this plant, the maximum achievable efficiency is
62.5%.
 Factors which affect Carnot Efficiency
Example: Consider a Carnot heat engine operating between a high-
temperature source at 900 K and rejecting heat to a low-temperature reservoir
at 300 K. (a) Determine the thermal efficiency of the engine; (b) Show how the
thermal efficiency changes as the temperature of the high-temperature source
is decreased; (b) Determine the change in thermal efficiency as the
temperature of the low-temperature sink is decreased 1
TL 300 Lower TH
h 1 1  0.667  66.7%
0.8

Efficiency
th
T
H
900 0.6
Th( T )
Fixed T  300( K ) and lowering T
L H
0.4

300 0.2
h (T )  1 
th H
T H
0
200 400 600 800 1000

The higher the temperature, the higher the "quality" T

Temp erature (TH)
1
of the energy: More work can be done
0.8 Increase TL
Efficiency 0.6
Fixed T  900( K ) and increasing T
H L
TH( TL )
0.4
T
h (T )  1 
th H
L
0.2
900
0
200 400 600 800 1000
TL
Temperature (TL)
 Carnot Efficiency & Quality of Energy

• The previous example illustrates that higher the

temperature of the low-temperature sink, more difficult it
becomes for a heat engine to reject/transfer heat into it.
• This results in a lower thermal efficiency
• One reason why low-temperature reservoirs such as rivers, lakes and
atmosphere are popular for heat rejection from power plants.

• Similarly,
the thermal efficiency of an engine, e.g a gas
turbine engine, can be increased by increasing the
temperature of the combustion chamber.
•This may sometimes conflict with other design requirements. Example:
turbine blades can not withstand high temperature (and pressure) gases,
which can leads to early fatigue. A Solution: better materials and/or
innovative cooling design.
 Quality of Energy cont’d

•This illustrates that the quality of energy is an important

factor in determining the efficiencies of systems. E.g. for the
same amount (quantity) of total energy, it is easier – more
efficient – to produce work from a high temperature reservoir
than a low temperature reservoir. Consequently, extracting
energy from low-temperature reservoirs such as rivers and
lakes is not very efficient. E.g. solar pond/lake have typical
efficiencies of around 5%

•Also, work is in general more valuable – of a higher quality -

relative to heat, since work can convert to heat almost with
almost 100% efficiency but not the other way around.
Energy becomes less useful when it is transferred to and
stored in a low-temperature reservoir.