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Concept

Planck curve

A dark, cloudy sky frames a glowing, symmetrical curve resembling a Planck curve, symbolizing the distribution of energy emitted by a black body at various wavelengths.

The mathematical description of how a perfect thermal radiator emits light at each wavelength, derived by Max Planck in 1900. The curve rises from the infrared, peaks at a wavelength inversely proportional to temperature, and falls into the ultraviolet. Every hot object — stove element, star, human body — emits a spectrum that approximates this shape, displaced along the wavelength axis according to how hot it is.

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