ASSIGNMENT 8

Q.1 Explain with sketches the laws of illumination ?

•The illumination on a surface depends upon the luminous intensity, distance between the source and
the surface, and the direction of rays of light.

There are two laws of Illuminations:

- Law of Inverse Squares
- Lambert’s Cosine Law

- INVERSE SQUARE LAW:

• If a source of light which emits light equally in all directions be placed at the Centre of a hollow
sphere, the light will fall uniformly on the inner surface of the sphere that is to say, each square mm
of the surface will receive the same amount of light.
• If the sphere be replaced by one sphere of larger radius, the same total amount of light is spread
over a larger area proportional to the square of the radius.
• The amount which falls upon any square mm of such a surface will, therefore, diminish as the
radius increases, and will be inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
• A similar relation holds if we have to deal with a beam of light in the form of a cone or pyramid.
• If we consider parallel surfaces which cut the pyramid at different distances from the source, the
areas of these surfaces are proportional to the square of these distances.
• Therefore, the amount of light which falls on one unit of the area of these surfaces is inversely
proportional to the square of the distance from the source.
• This relationship is referred to as the law of inverse squares.
• A source of light which emits light equally in all direction.
• For center of hollow sphere, light spreads uniformly means light spreads same at each direction.
• For center of hollow large radius, light spreads over a large area proportional to the square of the
radius.

• As light radiates from a point source, the intensity of light (I) is inversely proportional to the square
of the distance (d) from the source
• E is inversely proportional to d2
• E = 1/d2
• As intensity is the power per unit area (W/ sq.m.), it naturally decreases with the square of the
distance as the size of the radiating spherical wavefront increases with distance
• “Illumination of a surface is inversely proportional to the square of distance between the surface and
the light source provided that the distance between the surface and the source is sufficiently large so
that the source can be regarded as a point source.”
• Let us consider surface area A1 and surface area A2 at distances r1 and r2 respectively from
the point source S of luminous intensity I and normal to the rays.
• Let the solid angel subtended be ω steradians = I
• Total luminous flux radiated = Iω lumens

• Hence the illumination of a surface is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between
the surface and the light source provided that the distance between the surface and the source is
sufficiently large so that the source can be regarded as a point source
• As radius increases, it will be inversely proportional to the square of the distance.According to this
law the illumination at any point on a surface is proportional to the cosine of the angle between the
normal at that point and the direction of luminous flux. Some times, surface is not normal to the
direction of light, but inclined by some angle
• The area over which the light is spread is then increased in the ratio.

-COSINE LAW:

• This law states that the illumination on any surface is proportional to the cosine of the angle
between the direction of the incident flux and perpendicular to the area.
• Very often the illuminated surface is not normal to the direction of light as AC but is inclined as
AB.
• The area over which the light is spread is then increased in the given ratio.

Q.2 write short notes on:

1) LUMINOUS FLUX:

• Luminous flux or luminous power is the measure of the perceived power of light. It differs from
radiant flux, the measure of the total power of electromagnetic radiation (including infrared,
ultraviolet, and visible light), in that luminous flux is adjusted to reflect the varying sensitivity of the
human eye to different wavelengths of light.
• The SI unit of luminous flux is the lumen (lm). One lumen is defined as the luminous flux of light
produced by a light source that emits one candela of luminous intensity over a solid angle of one
steradian. In other systems of units, luminous flux may have units of power.
• Luminous flux is often used as an objective measure of the useful light emitted by a light source,
and is typically reported on the packaging for light bulbs, although it is not always prominent.
Consumers commonly compare the luminous flux of different light bulbs since it provides an
estimate of the apparent amount of light the bulb will produce, and a light bulb with a higher ratio of
luminous flux to consumed power is more efficient.
• Luminous flux is not used to compare brightness, as this is a subjective perception which varies
according to the distance from the light source and the angular spread of the light from the source
2) LUMINOUS INTENSITY:

• luminous intensity is a measure of the wavelength-weighted power emitted by a light source in a

particular direction per unit solid angle, based on the luminosity function, a standardized model of the
sensitivity of the human eye. The SI unit of luminous intensity is the candela (cd), an SI base unit.
• Photometry deals with the measurement of visible light as perceived by human eyes. The human
eye can only see light in the visible spectrum and has different sensitivities to light of different
wavelengths within the spectrum. When adapted for bright conditions (photopic vision), the eye is
most sensitive to greenish-yellow light at 555 nm.
• Light with the same radiant intensity at other wavelengths has a lower luminous intensity.
• The curve which measures the response of the human eye to light is a defined standard, known as
the luminosity function.
• This curve, denoted V(λ) , is based on an average of widely differing experimental data from
scientists using different measurement techniques.
• For instance, the measured responses of the eye to violet light varied by a
factor of ten.

3) ILLUMINANCE:

• illuminance is the total luminous flux incident on a surface, per unit area. It is a measure of how
much the incident light illuminates the surface, wavelengthweighted by the luminosity function to
correlate with human brightness perception. Similarly, luminous emittance is the luminous flux per
unit area emitted from a surface. Luminous emittance is also known as luminous existance.
• In SI derived units these are measured in lux (lx), or equivalently in lumens per square metre
(lm·m−2). In the CGS system, the unit of illuminance is the photo, which is equal to 10000 lux. The
foot-candle is a non-metric unit of illuminance that is used in photography.
• Illuminance was formerly often called brightness, but this leads to confusion with other uses of the
word, such as to mean luminance. "Brightness" should never be used for quantitative description, but
only for nonquantitative references to physiological sensations and perceptions of light.
• The human eye is capable of seeing somewhat more than a 2 trillion-fold range: The presence of
white objects is somewhat discernible under starlight, at 5×10−5 lux, while at the bright end, it is
possible to read large text at 108 lux, or about 1000 times that of direct sunlight, although this can be
very uncomfortable and cause long-lasting after images.