Talk:Thermal radiation

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[edit] Reworked

I've reworked the article, when I found many factual errors and other nonsense. Please post a comment and compare with the old version, as you see fit. Again, refrain from correcting as per old version - it was full of factual errors.

--PoorLeno 22:43, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Beginning of article: I believe radiators heat via thermal conduction and convection. I find it hard to believe that EM radiation is warming me as I stand by my radiator.

Try harder. Radiators heat by all three mechanisms. If you're close to the radiator then you can feel the IR radiation. You know it's radiation because you can shield yourself from it with your hand or a piece of reflective material. If you're on the opposite side of the room then most of the heat you receive will be from convection. If you touch the radiator then it's conduction. --Heron 19:54, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

Heron is right. And for your radiator it will be about 20 Joule per second per squared meter.

Hm, perhaps it was a bad example. I was visualizing a radiator in vaccum. I guess a better example would be heat from a fireplace, where you feel the infrared radiation as you come close to it. But at the same time, I wanted to illustrate that the surface itself is radiating. PoorLeno 10:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Props

I think its cool that the author of this article defined all the constants used in the equations. I wish more article would do that. Props to whoever the author was.