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ART. 121 - On the Theory of Illumination in a Fog

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

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Summary

As a step towards a better understanding of the action of fog upon light, it seems desirable to investigate what the phenomena would be in the simplest case that can be proposed. For this purpose we may consider the atmosphere and the material composing the fog to be absolutely transparent, and also make abstraction from the influence of obstacles, among which must be included the ground itself.

Conceive a small source of radiation, e.g. an incandescent carbon filament, to be surrounded by a spherical cloud, of uniform density, or at any rate symmetrically disposed round the source, outside of which the atmosphere is clear. Since by hypothesis there is no absorption, whatever radiation is emitted by the source passes outward through the external surface of the cloud. The effect of the cloud is to cause diffusion, i.e. to spread the rays passing through any small area of the surface (which in the absence of the cloud would be limited to a small solid angle) more or less uniformly over the complete hemisphere.

Whether the total radiation passing outwards through the small area on the external surface of the cloud is affected by the existence of the cloud depends upon the circumstances of the case. If it be laid down that the total emission of energy from the source is given, then the presence of the cloud makes no difference in respect of the energy passing any element of the spherical area.

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Scientific Papers , pp. 417 - 419
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009
First published in: 1900

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