wolfram a hypothetic body that completely absorbs all wavelengths of thermal radiation incident on it such bodies do not reflect light and therefore appear black if their temperatures are low enough so as not to be self luminous all blackbodies heated to a given temperature emit thermal radiation with the same spectrum as required by arguments of classical physics involving thermal equilibrium however the distribution of blackbody radiation as a function of wavelength known as the planck law cannot be predicted using classical physics this fact was the first motivating force behind the development of quantum mechanics wolfram referenced to eisberg r and resnick r thermal radiation in quantum physics of atoms molecules solids nuclei and particles nd ed new york wiley pp i think this also supports the must emit part of the definition