The term "ultraviolet catastrophe" refers to the prediction made by 19th-century physicists that an ideal black body radiation spectrum would have infinite energy at higher frequencies. However, this prediction was not observed experimentally and led to the development of quantum mechanics. There are various synonyms for "ultraviolet catastrophe," including "blackbody divergence problem," "Planck catastrophe," "ultraviolet disaster," and "short-wave catastrophe." These terms all describe the discrepancy between classical physics predictions and experimental observations, which led to the development of modern physics. The study of the ultraviolet catastrophe has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of the behavior of light and atoms at very small scales.