A physical law stating that the wavelength of peak emission from a blackbody is inversely proportional to its temperature. Hotter objects emit their peak radiation at shorter (bluer) wavelengths, while cooler objects peak at longer (redder) wavelengths.
Named after German physicist Wilhelm Wien, who formulated this law in 1893 as part of his work on blackbody radiation. Wien's work predated Planck's more complete solution but provided crucial insights into the relationship between temperature and color.
Wien's law is why hot things are blue and cool things are red - it's the universe's color-coding system! This simple relationship lets astronomers instantly know a star's temperature just by identifying its color: blue stars are scorching hot (over 30,000K), while red stars are relatively cool (under 4,000K).
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