Abstract
If we are to be able to understand the way the eye transmits nerve impulses, we need to be able to characterize accurately the light that is incident upon the eye. Obviously, the light generally casts an image with great variation in detail, with respect to both color and intensity. In this chapter, we will restrict ourselves to an image that consists of a field of uniform color and intensity. Such an image can be produced by having a light beam be cast upon and then reflected by a white screen. Therefore, we will focus our attention upon the characterization of a light beam.
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Note that 1-cm=10−2m and one meter=109nm.
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Cf. mass density=mass/volume.
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Noisy sound is often used in the waiting room of an MD or a psychotherapist to maintain the privacy of patients.
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It isn’t possible to produce a signal that is constant for all frequencies ranging from zero to infinity. There will always be a cutoff.
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The word essentially is inserted here because light from a single mono-chromatic source will always be more saturated than light from a mixture of monochromatic sources, as we will learn in Chap. 15.
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For a fascinating discussion of food colorings, see https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/.
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The following are suggested for further reading: Light and Color in Nature and Art, by S. Williamson and H. Cummins (J. Wiley and Sons, N.Y., 1983), Light and Color, by R. D. Overheim and D. L. Wagner (J. Wiley and Sons, N.Y., 1982), and Seeing the Light, by D. Falk, D. Brill, and D. Stork (Harper and Row, N.Y., 1986).
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Gunther, L. (2019). Characterizing Light Sources, Color Filters, and Pigments. In: The Physics of Music and Color. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19219-8_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19219-8_14
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