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This is a list of sources of light, the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum.Light sources produce photons from another energy source, such as heat, chemical reactions, or conversion of mass or a different frequency of electromagnetic energy, and include light bulbs and stars like the Sun. Reflectors (such as the moon, cat's eyes, and mirrors) do not actually produce the light that ...
Illuminants D (1967) represent variations of daylight, illuminant E is the equal-energy illuminant, while illuminants F (2004) represent fluorescent lamps of various composition. There are instructions on how to experimentally produce light sources ("standard sources") corresponding to the older illuminants.
The main source of natural light on Earth is the Sun. Historically, another important source of light for humans has been fire, from ancient campfires to modern kerosene lamps. With the development of electric lights and power systems, electric lighting has effectively replaced firelight.
In the past, the term "electro-radiant energy" has also been used. [4] The term "radiant energy" also applies to gravitational radiation. [5] [6] For example, the first gravitational waves ever observed were produced by a black hole collision that emitted about 5.3 × 10 47 joules of gravitational-wave energy. [7]
Mathematically, for the spectral power distribution of a radiant exitance or irradiance one may write: =where M(λ) is the spectral irradiance (or exitance) of the light (SI units: W/m 2 = kg·m −1 ·s −3); Φ is the radiant flux of the source (SI unit: watt, W); A is the area over which the radiant flux is integrated (SI unit: square meter, m 2); and λ is the wavelength (SI unit: meter, m).
To define light source color properties, the lighting industry predominantly relies on two metrics, correlated color temperature (CCT), commonly used as an indication of the apparent "warmth" or "coolness" of the light emitted by a source, and color rendering index (CRI), an indication of the light source's ability to make objects appear natural.
This page was last edited on 15 September 2013, at 04:23 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
Artificial light sources are usually evaluated in terms of luminous efficacy of the source, also sometimes called wall-plug efficacy. This is the ratio between the total luminous flux emitted by a device and the total amount of input power (electrical, etc.) it consumes.