A hypothetical body that absorbs all the radiation falling on it. It thus has an absorptance and an emissivity of 1. While a true black body is an imaginary concept, a small hole in the wall of an enclosure at uniform temperature is the nearest approach that can be made to it in practice.
Black-body radiation is the electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body. It extends over the whole range of wavelengths and the distribution of energy over this range has a characteristic form with a maximum at a certain wavelength. The position of the maximum depends on temperature, moving to shorter wavelengths with increasing temperature. See Planck’s radiation law; Stefan’s law; Wien’s displacement law.