Lesson Plan: Infrared Radiation Physics
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to describe how the temperature of an object and its surface features affect the object’s emission and absorption of infrared radiation.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- identify how the color of a surface affects its emission and absorption of infrared radiation,
- identify how the reflectivity of a surface affects its emission and absorption of infrared radiation,
- recognize that the output of infrared radiation increases with the temperature of an object and vice versa,
- describe the shape of the spectrum of light radiated by objects of different temperatures.
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- infrared as a region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- any calculations,
- the term emissivity.