Practice portal › Thermal Properties of Matter › Radiation, Stefan's Law and Cooling
Asked in AIEEE 2006 · Stefan-Boltzmann law
Idea: find the intensity reaching the earth's orbit, then multiply by the area the earth actually blocks.
Power leaving the sun, by Stefan's law over its whole surface: P=σ(4π R²)T⁴.
At distance r this is spread over a sphere of area 4π r², so the intensity is I=(σ 4π R²T⁴)/(4π r²)=(σ R²T⁴)/(r²).
The earth intercepts this parallel beam over its shadow disc, of area π r₀².
P_incident=I×π r₀²=(π r₀²R²σ T⁴)/(r²).
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