Randall D. Knight — Work, Heat, and the First Law of Thermodynamics: Problem 72

Most stars are main-sequence stars, a group of stars for which size, mass, surface temperature, and radiated power are closely related. The sun, for instance, is a yellow main-sequence star with a surface temperature of 5800 K. For a main-sequence star whose mass \(M\) is more than twice that of the sun, the total radiated power, relative to the sun, is approximately \(P/P_{\text{sun}} = (M/M_{\text{sun}})^{3.5}\). The star Regulus A is a bluish main-sequence star with mass \(3.8M_{\text{sun}}\) and radius \(3.1R_{\text{sun}}\). What is the surface temperature of Regulus A?