A phot (ph) is a
photometric unit of
illuminance, or
luminous flux
In photometry, luminous flux or luminous power is the measure of the perceived power of light. It differs from radiant flux, the measure of the total power of electromagnetic radiation (including infrared, ultraviolet, and visible light), in tha ...
through an area. It is not an
SI unit but rather is associated with the older
centimetre–gram–second system of units
The centimetre–gram–second system of units (abbreviated CGS or cgs) is a variant of the metric system based on the centimetre as the unit of length, the gram as the unit of mass, and the second as the unit of time. All CGS mechanical units ...
. The name was coined by
André Blondel
André-Eugène Blondel (28 August 1863 – 15 November 1938) was a French engineer and physicist. He is the inventor of the electromechanical oscillograph and a system of photometric units of measurement.
Life
Blondel was born in Chaumont, Ha ...
in 1921.
[Parry Moon. "System of photometer concepts", in the ''Journal of the Optical Society of America'', volume 32, number 6 (June 1942), doi:10.1364/JOSA.32.000348. – Page 355: "The lumen was proposed by Blondel in 1894 and is now universally accepted. The names, phot and stilb were likewise coined by Blondel (1921) and are in general use on the Continent."]
Metric equivalence:
:
Metric dimensions:
:Illuminance =
luminous intensity
In photometry, luminous intensity is a measure of the wavelength-weighted power emitted by a light source in a particular direction per unit solid angle, based on the luminosity function, a standardized model of the sensitivity of the human e ...
×
solid angle
In geometry, a solid angle (symbol: ) is a measure of the amount of the field of view from some particular point that a given object covers. That is, it is a measure of how large the object appears to an observer looking from that point.
The poi ...
/ length
2
See also
*
Illuminance
*
Lumen (unit)
The lumen (symbol: lm) is the unit of luminous flux, a measure of the total quantity of visible light emitted by a source per unit of time, in the International System of Units (SI). Luminous flux differs from power ( radiant flux) in that rad ...
*
Lux
The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by ...
*
Photometry (optics)
Photometry is the science of the measurement of light, in terms of its perceived brightness to the human eye. It is distinct from radiometry, which is the science of measurement of radiant energy (including light) in terms of absolute power. ...
*
Light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...
References
External links
* Knowledgedoor, LLC (2005)
Library of Units and Constants: Illuminance Quantity Retrieved 2006-07-21.
Illuminance Converter Retrieved 2006-07-21.
{{CGS units
Units of illuminance
Centimetre–gram–second system of units