Visible Light & Inverse Square Law - Rad. Physics Newbie

[ColdFire]

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I have a question that might sound stupid, but I was wondering if someone could tell me if visible light obeys the inverse square law? Thanks.

 

[whozum]

Depends on what your referring to.

The "inverse square law" is just a mathematical relationship between an independant and dependant variable that comes up a lot in physics, wave intensity, gravitation, electromagnetics, etc.

The intensity of light is proportional to the inverse square of the distance of measurement, if that's what you mean.

 

[thepatientmental]

Hi there, it's great that you're curious about the inverse square law and its relationship to visible light. To answer your question, yes, visible light does indeed obey the inverse square law. This law states that the intensity of light decreases in proportion to the square of the distance from the source. This means that as you move further away from a light source, the intensity of visible light decreases exponentially. This is why objects appear dimmer the further away they are from a light source. I hope this helps clarify things for you. Keep exploring and learning about radiation physics!