Episode 1 of 2
Empirical Deduction of Fourth Power Relationship
- When
- 1877
- Where
- Vienna Academy of Sciences
Josef Stefan deduced the proportionality of thermal radiation to the fourth power of absolute temperature in 1877, based on Tyndall's experimental measurements.
Stefan published his findings in the article 'Über die Beziehung zwischen der Wärmestrahlung und der Temperatur' in the Bulletins from the sessions of the Vienna Academy of Sciences. This work established the empirical basis for Stefan's law, which states that radiant exitance is proportional to the fourth power of temperature.
Sources
- Stefan–Boltzmann law Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-08
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.