By definition, a blackbody in thermal equilibrium has an emissivity of ε = 1.0. Real objects do not radiate as much heat as a perfect black body, and they radiate less heat than a black body and therefore are called gray bodies. The Stefan-Boltzmann law must include emissivity to consider that real objects are gray bodies.
Quantitatively, emissivity is the ratio of the thermal radiation from a surface to the radiation from an ideal black surface at the same temperature as given by the Stefan–Boltzmann law. Emissivity is simply a factor by which we multiply the black body heat transfer to consider that the black body is the ideal case.
The surface of a blackbody emits thermal radiation at the rate of approximately 448 watts per square meter at room temperature (25 °C, 298.15 K). Real objects with emissivities less than 1.0 (e.g., copper wire) emit radiation at correspondingly lower rates (e.g., 448 x 0.03 = 13.4 W/m2). Emissivity plays an important role in heat transfer problems. For example, solar heat collectors incorporate selective surfaces with very low emissivities. These collectors waste very little solar energy through the emission of thermal radiation.
Another important radiation property of a surface is its absorptivity, α, which is the fraction of the radiation energy incident on a surface absorbed by the surface. Like emissivity, value of absorptivity is in the range 0 < α < 1.
In general, the absorptivity and the emissivity are interconnected by Kirchhoff’s Law of thermal radiation, which states:
For an arbitrary body emitting and absorbing thermal radiation in thermodynamic equilibrium, the emissivity is equal to the absorptivity.
emissivity ε = absorptivity α
Note that visible radiation occupies a very narrow band of the spectrum from 400 to 760 nm. We cannot make any judgments about the blackness of a surface based on visual observations. For example, consider a white paper that reflects visible light and thus appears white. On the other hand, it is essentially black for infrared radiation (absorptivity α = 0.94) since they strongly absorb long-wavelength radiation.