TITLE

THERMAL RADIATON : ILLUMINANCE

1.0

PROBLEM STATEMENT

In this experiment, the problem statement involved are three which are :

How power, W can affect illuminance?

How different colours in filters used in the experiment affect illuminance of light?

2.0

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the experiment is to investigate basic radiation laws by thermal and optical radiation
examples. In this experiment, we specifically aim to investigate

3.0

the resulting illuminance of light through the density of light (lux).

INTRODUCTION

In photometry, illuminance is the total luminous flux incident on a surface, per unit area. It is a
measure of how much the incident light illuminates the surface, wavelength-weighted by the
luminosity function to correlate with human brightness perception. The lux is used as the unit for
illuminance and the lux is one lumen per square metre (lm/m2), and the corresponding radiometric
unit, which measures irradiance, is the watt per square metre (W/m2).
There is no single conversion factor between lx and W/m 2; there is a different conversion factor for
every wavelength, and it is not possible to make a conversion unless one knows the spectral
composition of the light.Illuminance can also be defined as the measure of the density of light shining
onto a surface.
4.0

HYPOTHESIS

At a higher amount of power, W, the density of light (lux)will also be higher. The red coloured filter

will produce the highest value of illuminance.

5.0

VARIABLES

Manipulated variable : Power, W , the filters with three different colours (green, red,
infrared)
Responding variable

Density of light (lux)

Fixed variable

Distance from the light source to the sensor (30cm), angle of

the installed filter (0O)

6.0

APPARATUS AND MATERIALS

Thermal radiation unit WL362

Figure 1 :
Thermal
radiation unit
WL362

Figure 2 : Schematic view of the experimental set up

Filters with three different colours (green, red, infrared),

Figure 3 : Green filter

Figure 4 : Red filter

Figure 5 : Infrared filter

7.0

PROCEDURES

1.

The apparatus is set up according to Figure 2.

2.

The distance between the luxmeter and the light source was fixed at a distance of 30 cm.

3.

A filter of infrared colour was inserted first into the stand at a starting power of 40W.

thermal radiation unit WL362 was switched on in order to generate the light

The

source to pass through

the filter.
4.

Step 3 was repeated using an increment of 10W until it reached a maximum power of

5.

The responding density of light (lux) before and after installing the filters with the

100 W.

use of

different power are recorded in Table 1.

6.
8.0

Step 3 - 5 was repeated using different colour of slit which is red and green.
TABLE OF RESULTS
Power, W

Illuminance after installing filters (lx)

Green
Red
Infrared

Illuminance
before installing
filters (lx)

40
50
60
70
80
90
100

9.0

EXPECTED OUTCOME

By ensuring all the lights near the experimental set up were dimmed, it will enable the readings of the
resulting illuminance or the density of light to be more accurate. Through the effects of a dimmer
environment, the expected outcome can be seen in Figure 3 below.

Figure 6 :
Graph of
Power
against

Illuminance
It can be seen through Figure 6 that the optimum colour temperature will produce the highest value of
density of light (lux), thus having the highest value of illuminance. In this case, red filter will produce
highest illuminance compared to infrared and green.
10.0 CONCLUSION
The purpose of conducting this experiment is to prove the feasibility of the hypothesis.