Color

It is common practice to define pure colors in terms of the wavelengths of light as shown. This works well for spectral colors but it is found that many different combinations of light wavelengths can produce the same perception of color.

This progression from left to right is from long wavelength to short wavelength, and from low frequency to high frequency light. The wavelengths are commonly expressed in nanometers (1 nm = 10-9 m). The visible spectrum is roughly from 700 nm (red end) to 400 nm (violet end). The letter I in the sequence above is for indigo - no longer commonly used as a color name. It is included above strictly for the reason of making the sequence easier to say as a mnemonic, like a person's name: Roy G. Biv - a tradition in the discussion of color.
The inherently distinguishable characteristics of color are hue, saturation, and brightness. Color measurement systems characterize colors in various parameters which relate to hue, saturation, and brightness. They include the subjective Munsell and Ostwald systems and the quantitative CIE color system.

White light, or nearly white light from the Sun, contains a continuous distribution of wavelengths. The light from the Sun is essentially that of a blackbody radiator at 5780 K. The wavelengths (spectral colors) of white light can be separated by a dispersive medium like a prism. Even more effective separation can be achieved with a diffraction grating.
A Brief Focus on Color Vision

Light Intensity
Power Per Unit Solid Angle
The power (flux) per unit solid angle (sometimes called pointance) is the nearest precise terminology to the common term intensity. It expresses the directionality of the radiated energy and is appropriate for the description of point sources. In the case of radiant power, it is expressed in watts per steradian. For visible light it is expressed in lumens per steradian = candela.

Calculation to be added.
If the intensity ( I = dΦ/dω ) of a source is the same in all directions, the source is called isotropic. Otherwise, for a flat radiating surface, known as a lambertian, the intensity falls off as the cosine of the observation angle with respect to the surface normal.
Differentiating Radiometry and Photometry


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