photometric distance law

law relating the illuminance, E, on a real or imaginary surface to the luminous intensity, I, of an illuminating point source whereby

where θ is the angle between the normal to the surface and the line between the surface and the source and d is the distance between the source and the surface

Note 1 to entry: The photometric distance law strictly only applies for a point source. However, it can also be applied for non-point sources at sufficiently large distances within acceptable limits of error or measurement uncertainty; in this case the degree of approximation at the distance used should be confirmed by measurement.

Note 2 to entry: For radiometric sources the equivalent term is "radiometric distance law".

Note 3 to entry: This entry was numbered 17-912 in CIE S 017:2011.