大象传媒

Inverse square law calculations

Worked example

A lamp illuminates a screen of area \(2.0m^{2}\), which is \(4 m\) away. The irradiance at the screen is \(0.02Wm^{-2}\).

a) Calculate the power of the incident beam.

b) If the screen is moved to a distance of \(1.5 m\) from the lamp, what would the new irradiance be?

Solution

a) To calculate the power use the formula \( I = \frac{P}{A}\)

This can be rearranged into \(P=IA\)

\(=0.02 \times 2=0.04W\)

b) To find the new irradiance:

\(I_{1}d_{1}\,^{2}=I_{2}d_{2}\,^{2}\)

\(0.02\times 4^{2}=I_{2}\times 1.5^{2}\)

\(I_{2}=\frac{0.02\times 4^{2}}{1.5^{2}}\)

\(=0.142Wm^{-2}\)

Question

A 60 W lamp is placed in the centre of a spherical chamber with a radius of 3m. Calculate the irradiance of the lamp on the inner surface of the chamber.

(You need to use the relationship - surface area of a sphere \(= 4\pi {r^2}\)).