The main problem that physicists had in understanding blackbody radiation before Planck's work was:
A)Blackbody radiation came from objects that were not actually black.
B)The classically predicted frequency spectrum showed an infinitely large peak at low frequencies.
C)The classically predicted frequency spectrum showed an infinitely large peak at high frequencies.
D)The classically predicted frequency spectrum had a minimum intensity rather than a maximum as observed.
E)The classically predicted frequency spectrum had a maximum intensity that decreased with temperature, rather than increasing as observed.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The main issue was the "ultraviolet catastrophe," where classical physics predicted an infinitely large peak at high frequencies, which did not match experimental observations. Max Planck resolved this by introducing the concept of quantized energy levels.

The Main Problem That Physicists Had in Understanding Blackbody Radiation