Enigma
Well-Known Member
Light doesn't diminish over a distance, the same amount of light has to cover a larger surface area the farther it is away from an object perpendicular to the source.Part of it too I believe is the shape of that grow box. If someone could come out with one that allowed you to put the main buds at the focal point of an elliptical box with the CFL's at the other point, you could probably greatly increase effeciency. Would this help negate the inverse function of light greatly diminishing with distance? I would like someone with physics background to chime in.
People would probably buy this in a heart beat as it could be made extremely cheap molded plastic. just like rubbermaids. plants might need rotation but it might work.
sorry for hijacking I figure this is the best place though to discuss considering your going to come back.
If your light is 1 ft. above the object it will project its light over 1 sq. ft. of area. Math dictates that all of the light will be projected to this 1 sq. ft. of area. If the source is 2 ft. from the object then the same amount of light will be spread over 4 sq. ft. of area. 1/4 of the light per sq. ft. To maintain the same amount of light per sq. ft. you will need 4 times the initial light to cover 4 sq. ft.
E = I/r*r
That is, Illuminance (E) equals Pointance (I) devided by Distance (r) squared. The Illuminance is the light avaible on an object per sq. ft., Pointance is the initial light (source), and Distance (r) is how far (in any measurement; ft., M, ect.) the Pointance (source) is from a perpendicular object.
Note: The sun, on average, produces 10,500 Lumens per square foot on Earth. Mercury recieves 9 times that much light energy per sq. ft. because it is closer.
Enigma