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The divergence of a vector field which is the resultant of radial inverse-square law fields with respect to one or more sources is proportional to the strength of the local sources, and hence zero outside sources. Newton's law of universal gravitation follows an inverse-square law, as do the effects of electric, light, sound, and radiation ...
Calculating the relation between the apparent and actual luminosity of an object requires taking all of these factors into account. The object's actual luminosity is determined using the inverse-square law and the proportions of the object's apparent distance and luminosity distance.
The amount passing through an area A varies with the distance of the surface from the light. The Stefan–Boltzmann equation applied to a black body gives the value for luminosity for a black body, an idealized object which is perfectly opaque and non-reflecting: [11] =, where A is the surface area, T is the temperature (in kelvins) and σ is ...
Flux decreases with distance according to an inverse-square law, so the apparent magnitude of a star depends on both its absolute brightness and its distance (and any extinction). For example, a star at one distance will have the same apparent magnitude as a star four times as bright at twice that distance.
Just as with standard candles, given the emitted and received amplitudes, the inverse-square law determines the distance to the source. There are some differences with standard candles, however. Gravitational waves are not emitted isotropically, but measuring the polarisation of the wave provides enough information to determine the angle of ...
The solar "constant" is not a physical constant in the modern CODATA scientific sense; that is, it is not like the Planck constant or the speed of light which are absolutely constant in physics. The solar constant is an average of a varying value. In the past 400 years it has varied less than 0.2 percent. [2]
This dimming follows the inverse square law, which states that the brightness of an object decreases as 1 ⁄ r 2, where r is the distance between the observer and the object. Starlight also follows the inverse square law. Light rays leave the star in equal amounts in all directions. The light rays create a sphere of light surrounding the star.
The law was first [1] formulated by Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1773, [2] followed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1835, [3] both in the context of the attraction of ellipsoids. It is one of Maxwell's equations, which forms the basis of classical electrodynamics. [note 1] Gauss's law can be used to derive Coulomb's law, [4] and vice versa.