Tuesday, March 12, 2019

[rkdceyod] Inverse square luminosity and area

Make some discs with area proportional to the luminosity of some stars, perhaps the first few of the apparent brightest.  Pick a viewing point, then set them up at distances proportional to their actual astronomical distance.  The inverse square law will work: their apparent area when viewed at their scaled distance in the model will correlate with apparent brightness in the sky.

There may be some trickiness in how brightness perceived by the eyes is not linear.

Maybe a little bit tricky for multiple-star systems, e.g., Alpha Centauri.  Pie chart.

No comments:

Post a Comment