The statistical form of the curve of oscillation for the radiation emitted by a black body

Abstract

The view adopted in the following paper is that the radiation from a black body is an irregular disturbance subject to statistical laws. This view is, I believe, that now generally held. It is shown that these laws can be deduced from the observed distribution of energy in the spectrum and that they enable the general character of the disturbance to be described. At any point in an actual spectrum of the radiation we have a large number of simple harmonic vibrations of arbitrary phases and various amplitudes. The radiation may be regarded as the sum of all the simple vibrations in the spectrum. The component vibrations may be regarded as continually varying, but the distribution of energy in the spectrum, when averaged over a short interval, remains constant.