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Infinitely bright lightbulb?

A man looks at a small lit lightbulb, 5m away. He perceives it as being of a certain luminosity.

A woman looks at the same bulb from a different point 5m away. All things being equal, she will perceive it as having the same luminosity.

There are an infinite number of points from which the bulb could be observed. Does that mean the bulb actually has infinite luminosity?

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  • Asked by mkomor
  • on 2009-08-04 15:40:46
  • Member status
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Categories: Domestic Science.

Tags: light, luminosity, photons.

 

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8 answer(s)


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rogerp says:

No

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posted on 2009-08-05 09:18:21 | Report abuse

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mkomor says:

I thought not! But where's the flaw in the logic? If an infinite number of observers in different places could perceive the bulb as having the same level of brightness, how bright is the lamp?

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posted on 2009-08-05 09:49:57 | Report abuse


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Jon-Richfield says:

Even a tiny "infinitely bright" light source would have to have infinite mass-equivalent in energy at least, infinitely exceeding the mass of the observable universe, and therefore would cause gravitational collapse of the observable universe. So it is trivially obvious that there is no such thing as an infinitely bright source anywhere, let alone in a lightbulb.  In fact I cannot conceive any true infinity in the "real world". In empirically applied maths the concept of infinity is a convenient fiction, even in a notional singularity.

 

Secondly, in the real world, in your assumption of an "infinite number of points" you have fallen foul of another mathematical fiction. We cannot distinguish points to a greater resolution than whatever Planck's constant dictates, something like 10 to the 34 per metre.  Also, light is not without its own structure, put consists of particles in the form of wave packets.

 

So, forget about physical infinities!

 

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posted on 2009-08-05 17:30:45 | Report abuse


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Jon-Richfield says:

I suspect that there is a problem. I cannot see my submission here, though I tried twice.  Have I missed an instruction manual? (I often do...)

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posted on 2009-08-05 17:35:27 | Report abuse

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Moderator says:

Hi Jon,

It looks like your replies did eventually appear - sometimes there is a small delay before submissions come through, please let us know if the delay is significant of this happens regularly. I deleted your duplicate entry.

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posted on 2009-08-05 19:23:14 | Report abuse


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StewartH status says:

The human eye has a size greater than zero. It is, therefore, not possible to observe the light at a particular distance with an infinite number of eyes. This is where you have run into a problem.

 

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posted on 2009-08-05 21:10:34 | Report abuse


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Savonrepus says:

Each observer determines the luminosity by the strength of the light waves emitted by the bulb.  The strength of the light wave at a particular distance is defined by the bulb so is finite and does not change no matter how many people intercept the light wave for the purpose of observation.

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posted on 2009-08-08 05:13:21 | Report abuse

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Jon-Richfield says:

Yes, both you and StewartH are correct.  I was over-generous in invoking Poor, overworked Planck!

Still, it does emphasise that even of you did drop your sample size to intercepting single photons, you still would encounter  no embarrassing  infinities.

 

Go well,

 

Jon

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posted on 2009-08-09 19:35:35 | Report abuse


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