Can Anyone Explain The Ultraviolet Catastrophe To Me?

Glis...I am still missing here...why then does the idea of particles...the doses...quanta...how does that help the situation out?

Because then it has a quantifiable degree of freedom, a finite set of oscillation modes.

Glis...I put something intuitive/analog style under Ozgirl comments...does that match with your understanding?

Very roughly.. I think this is... May be... Your answer.
Classical physics predicted that a body or object will register energy... Heat... In all frequencies, but, as the frequency of the radiation gets higher, for example going from heat to light, then the amount of radiated energy is higher, the larger or higher the frequency the more energy is radiated... Once you get into really high frequencies, according to the accepted theories at the time, the UV band... The predicted amount of energy being radiated becomes so bloody huge that it was obviously wrong ... The body could not have contained that much energy in the first place .... Does this make sense?

Ozgirl, between you and Glis...maybe...but then I am not sure I see why the concept of quanta helped things out?

I never explored that area .. Yet... But possibly the answer is this or related ... Traditionally  energy was right to register in a continuous stream ... See if this extract makes sense to you... It's not deep so doesn't explain the why... I think you need the math for that which I certainly don't have
At the end of the 19 th century, the puzzle regarding blackbody radiation was that the theory regarding how hot objects radiate energy predicted that an infinite amount of energy is emitted at small wavelengths, which clearly makes no sense from the perspective of energy conservation. Because small wavelengths correspond to the ultraviolet end of the spectrum, this puzzle was known as the ultraviolet catastrophe. Figure 27.1 shows the issue, comparing the theoretical predictions to the actual spectrum for an object at a temperature of 5000 K. There is clearly a substantial disagreement between the curves.
The German physicist Max Planck (1858 – 1947) was able to solve the ultraviolet catastrophe through what, at least at first, he saw as a mathematical trick. This trick, which marked the birth of quantum physics, also led to Planck being awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. Planck determined that if the vibrating atoms and molecules were not allowed to take on any energy, but instead were confined to a set of equally-spaced energy levels, the predicted spectra matched the experimentally determined spectra extremely well. Planck determined that, for an atom oscillating with a frequency f, the allowed energy levels were integer multiples of the base energy unit hf, where Planck’s constant h has the value 6.626 ! 10 -34 J s.

Hi Ozgirl, I am guessing that the resolution is here, that you quoted:
"Planck determined that if the vibrating atoms and molecules were not allowed to take on any energy, but instead were confined to a set of equally-spaced energy levels, the predicted spectra matched the experimentally determined spectra extremely well."

Usually with this stuff, I can find an intuitive analog explanation that really makes sense in real-world terms...so somehow, those quanta mean that the molecules cannot take on energy, thus the energy does not get infinite on you...

Maybe there is a fully common-sense intuitive understanding...or maybe I would need to really do these experiments myself, along with some math, to fully comprehend.

Anyway, ty...I am thinking about it.

Ozgirl I think I might have at least the beginnings of an intuitive explanation...

When you irradiate an energy-absorbing, black object with light, it absorbs the energy of the light and emits heat.

UV light has tiny wavelength...so LOTS of energy...like Muhammad Ali knocking folks out with an extended series of rapid punches. And the calculation is that with the very high energy of the rapid-fire UV, then why doesn't the black box get extremely hot even infinite?

Answer is: The electrons of the black box are able to absorb energy in certain discreet specified quantities ONLY, rather than a steady stream of the wave theory.
And UV light does not match the electron orbits of the black box...thus even though bombarded with all this hi energy UV, the box's electrons do not match the UV energy, and thus cannot absorb the UV and so the box doesn't even get hot...matching experimental results...

And voilá, quantum theory is born!

I'm no expert so please take this asking with a shovel full of salt!
  Not quite... It's not about irradiating a body with light, it's about if you have a heated body it will emit tradition... Mostly heat... Some you feel, but if it's hot enough, some you see as it does with different colour of light. ... The problem was the classical physics said the higher the frequency, the more energy it would radiate.... As the frequency got higher still.. red light, white light, then into frequencies we couldn't see, UV, the amount of energy approached infinity .. which was clearly not possible .. Hope this helps but I'm scrambling too :)

Hmmm...sounds like I need to keep pondering here, a bit more...

Actually, reading your last post over, yes I think I am seeing more...so, classical physics predicts emission of heat + some light, and then some in the UV spectrum which gets infinite...except that UV emission with all the immense energy does not happen...and the quanta is why? Because the black body electrons do not/cannot emit in that UV range?

Your info said 5,000*K...really hot...and then even the sun, lots of heat/light energy but sun is yellow light not blue. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 4, 2017 2:08 AM MST

If it makes you feel any better I think there's very few people who actually really understand QM .. because if counter intuitive often in what it says ... Maybe one of those things you just have to accept on face value ... But I'm getting the strong feeling we are not dissimilar and want to understand the why and the how rather than just accept

Morning Star, oh hurrah!
Clearly this is the definitive answer!