Chapter 4, Problem 9P

The maximum in the blackbody radiation intensity curve moves to shorter wavelength as temperature increases. The German physicist Wilhelm Wien demonstrated the relation to be ${\lambda }_{\max }\alpha 1/T$ . Later, Planck’s equation showed the maximum to be ${\lambda }_{\max }=0.20hc/kt$ . In 1965, scientists researching problems in telecommunication discovered “background radiation” with maximum wavelength 1.05 mm (microwave region of the EM spectrum) throughout space. Estimate the temperature of space.