From: Ed Stander (glassact@compuserve.com)
Date: 04/27/00-01:45:45 PM Z
Sandy:
The Inverse Square law DOES hold for fluorescent lights. It would be
rather sad if the laws of physics only held true for incandescents. The
trick here lies in defining the distance correctly. The light received
from a bank of lights does not come only from the center of the bulb. It
bounces around a lot and effectively comes from everywhere the light
bounces from. So what distance do you measure? As long as you are within
the enclosure of the box, a move away from the lights may simply bring new
rays into play. Once you move far enough away, however, the inverse square
law works fine. If you wish to test this, simply make white paper blinders
for each bulb. Wrap the paper over the top of each bulb, and have it open
towards the print. This will limit the amount of scatter. Do this and I
think you'll find tat Newton's law works just fine.
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