Question

The intensity of light from a star (its brightness) is the power it outputs divided by the surface area over which it’s spread: I = P 4πd2 . Suppose two stars of the same apparent brightness I are also believed to be the same size. The spectrum of one star peaks at 750 nm while the other peaks at 450 nm. Use Wien’s Law and the Stefan-Boltzmann equation to estimate their relative distances from u

Answer 1

Answer:

$\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}=0.36$

Explanation:

1. We can find the temperature of each star using the Wien's Law. This law is given by:

$\lambda_{max}=\frac{b}{T}=\frac{2.9x10^{-3}[mK]}{T[K]}$ (1)

So, the temperature of the first and the second star will be:

$T_{1}=3866.7 K$

$T_{2}=6444.4 K$

Now the relation between the absolute luminosity and apparent brightness  is given:

$L=l\cdot 4\pi r^{2}$ (2)

Where:

• L is the absolute luminosity
• l is the apparent brightness
• r is the distance from us in light years

Now, we know that two stars have the same apparent brightness, in other words l₁ = l₂

If we use the equation (2) we have:

$\frac{L_{1}}{4\pi r_{1}^2}=\frac{L_{2}}{4\pi r_{2}^2}$

So the relative distance between both stars will be:

$\left(\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}\right)^{2}=\frac{L_{1}}{L_{2}}$ (3)

The Boltzmann Law says, $L=A\sigma T^{4}$ (4)

• σ is the Boltzmann constant
• A is the area
• T is the temperature
• L is the absolute luminosity

Let's put (4) in (3) for each star.

$\left(\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}\right)^{2}=\frac{A_{1}\sigma T_{1}^{4}}{A_{2}\sigma T_{2}^{4}}$

As we know both stars have the same size we can canceled out the areas.

$\left(\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}\right)^{2}=\frac{T_{1}^{4}}{T_{2}^{4}}$

$\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{T_{1}^{4}}{T_{2}^{4}}}$

$\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}=\sqrt{\frac{T_{1}^{4}}{T_{2}^{4}}}$

$\frac{d_{1}}{d_{2}}=0.36$

I hope it helps!