The stilb (sb) is the
CGS unit of
luminance for objects that are not self-luminous. It is equal to one
candela
The candela (symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radi ...
per square centimeter or 10
4 nits (candelas per square meter). The name was coined by the French physicist
André Blondel around 1920. It comes from the Greek word (), meaning 'to glitter'.
It was in common use in Europe up to
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. In North America self-explanatory terms such as candle per square inch and candle per square meter were more common. The unit has since largely been replaced by the SI unit:
candela per square meter. The current national standard for SI in the United States discourages the use of the stilb.
[IEEE/ASTM SI 10-2002. ''American National Standard for Use of the International System of Units (SI): The Modern Metric System''. New York: IEEE, 30 December 2002. See Section 3.3.3.]
Unit conversion
See also
*
Scotopic stilb
References
Further reading
Stilb at ''A Dictionary of Units of Measurement'', Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Accessed June 2008.
at Sizes.com. Accessed June 2008.
Units of luminance
Centimetre–gram–second system of units
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