Thermal radiation Memes

The bell curve of astronomical understanding strikes again. On both extremes, you've got people who think "the moon gives off light" - either because they never progressed past kindergarten science or because they've ascended to understanding blackbody radiation. Meanwhile, the average IQ crowd clings desperately to "the moon only reflects the sun's light" like it's their personality. Technically, the moon does emit its own thermal radiation (albeit at a chilly ~120K), just like every object above absolute zero. The truly enlightened physicist knows this, while somehow circling back to the same conclusion as the person who thinks the moon is a giant lightbulb.

The bell curve of intellectual enlightenment strikes again. The 68% in the middle—our perfectly average humans with their 100 IQ—correctly understand that the moon merely reflects sunlight. Meanwhile, the statistical outliers on both ends confidently proclaim "the moon gives off light" with matching conviction but wildly different reasoning. The left side believes it because they never passed elementary science, while the right side understands blackbody radiation—that even cold objects emit infrared radiation according to their temperature. They're technically correct in the most insufferable way possible. Nothing says "I have a physics degree" like correcting people about thermal emission spectra at parties.

The caption "traumatize a fandom with one image" paired with blackbody radiation curves is pure physics-nerd psychological warfare. Classical theory (dotted line) catastrophically fails to match reality—the infamous "ultraviolet catastrophe" that broke physics and birthed quantum mechanics. Just like that, your comfortable deterministic universe shattered into probabilistic pieces. It's the physics equivalent of finding out your favorite character dies off-screen. No wonder Max Planck needed therapy after introducing his constant—he killed Newtonian reality.