- Author
- Worthey, J. A.
- Title
- Dealing With Obvious Issues in Lighting.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Journal
- Lighting Design and Application, Vol. 21, No. 8, 15,17-19, August 1991
- Keywords
- lighting equipment
- Abstract
- In an article last month, I listed six reasons why theory is important for lighting research and practice: 1. Theory is what engineers do. For instance, all electrical engineers must understand circuit theory. 2. It's hard to vary light source size. Theory can isolate the effects of source area. Experiments to vary size while controlling other parameters would be hard. 3. It's also hard to vary spectral power distribution. 4. Optics is not controversial. Much of the theory need for the discussion of lighting quality is simple optics as applied to the interaction of light and objects. 5. Theory guides experiment. Theory helps in the design of experiments. 6. More speculative theories may also have a place. Theory lets you move forward from the simple to the complicated. These six reasons for the use of theory all come down to this: Lighting is complicated, but theory can help you to understand it step by step. In this article, I want to look at one more rationale for the use of theory. In a final article, I'll talk about the payoffs that a more theoretical approach to lighting may give. I believe that better use of theory may lead to solid, advances in the design of luminaires and systems, but that's for next time.