- Author
- Worthey, J. A.
- Title
- Lighting Research and Theory Can Create Business Prospects.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Lighting Design and Application, Vol. 21, No. 9, 14-17, September 1991
- Keywords
- lighting equipment | luminescence | thermodynamics
- Abstract
- The first article in this series listed six reasons for the use of theory in lighting. These reasons all relate to the complexity of lighting and the need to approach it systematically, as a physicist would. The second article addressed the curious fact that theory helps us to deal with things that are obvious. While the lighting engineer can control light source area over a wide range, controlled experiments with a wide variation of obvious lighting features are had to design. It is easier to design an experiment in which the independent variable is something subtle. In the theoretician's orderly universe, it is normal to state the obvious, to work with it, and to calculate things from it. The topic of this final article is: What benefits can come from a more theoretical approach to lighting research and design? The answer proposed will be this: Better theory can give better lighting system designs and, in particular, new and better luminaires.