During an experiment intended to verify the temperature dependence of thermal radiation
PHYSICS · Subjective · A Level · Physics · Further mechanics and thermal physics · Further mechanics and thermal physics
Problem
During an experiment intended to verify the temperature dependence of thermal radiation, a learner finds that the calculated constant values differ more than expected at the highest temperature settings.
(i) Identify any three possible systematic sources of error that could cause such deviations when measuring either temperature or radiant energy.
(ii) For each source named in part (i), explain qualitatively how it would influence the calculated constant (state whether it would tend to make the value too high or too low and why).
(iii) Propose one practical step for minimising each of the errors discussed above.