THE INVERSE-SQUARE LAW OF LIGHT

Purpose: To understand how and why light intensity varies with distance.

Materials: Incandescent light source, ring stand and test tube holder, photocell, galvanometer,
meter stick, black paper, tape, calculator, and graph paper.

Safety Precautions:

Introduction:

From everyday experience, it is obvious that light sources appear to become

brighter as you move closer to them. The apparent brightness of the source is related to
its distance. However, moving a light source twice as close to you does not make it
twice as bright. In this lab, we will examine this relationship in some detail.
Astronomically, this correlation between distance and intensity is of great
importance, for it allows the determination of distances to distant stars and galaxies. We
will determine the relationship experimentally, and then use it to answer some
astronomical questions.
For this experiment, we use a light detector (photocell) which enables us to
make light intensity measurements that are more precise than those made with the
human eye. The photocell converts light intensity to an electrical current, which can be
measured with a current meter (ammeter). The current produced by the photocell is
directly proportional to the amount of light falling on it. If the light intensity doubles,
the meter reading will also double.

Procedure:

It is extremely important to keep stray light out of the detector during this
exercise. Moving shadows and reflected light seen by the detector can spoil your results.
Avoid unnecessary motion during measurements. In particular, try to keep behind your
detector while taking data. Stay close to your experiment while other groups are
recording data.

1. Place the light source at a distance, “d," from the detector equal to the 40 cm. “d” is
measured from the center of the light bulb to the surface of the detector. Place a sheet of
black paper directly in front of the light source, blocking the light going to the detector
from the source. Read the current meter and record your reading in Table 1 in the
column marked “background.” This reading gives the background intensity resulting
from stray light in the room. Remove the black paper and record the meter reading in
the column marked “source & background.” Subtract “background” from “source &
background” and enter this value in the column marked “source.”
2. Repeat the above procedure for the other distances indicated in Table 1.
3. Next replace the light bulb with one of a lower wattage (intensity). Follow the same
procedure as above for the new intensity and record your data in Table 2. On a sheet of
graph paper, plot your data with distance along the horizontal axis and current (light
intensity ) along the vertical axis. Draw two smooth curves that best fit your data points,
one for each intensity of the light bulb. do not just connect the dots. Label these curves
“high intensity” and “low intensity.”
Questions

1. From your two measurements of intensity made at d = 40 cm, find the ration of intensities between the
high and low wattage bulbs, dividing the lower intensity by the higher intensity. Repeat this calculation
for the other distances. Are all of these results nearly the same (within about 20% of the average)?

2. On the high intensity curve, find the point that is 1/4 the intensity of the reading a d = 60 cm. From
your graph, read off the distance “d” corresponding to that point. What is the ration of the distance at 1/4
intensity to the distance of the measurement at 60 cm? What is this ration for the low intensity curve?
Are these two ratios nearly the same (within 20%)?

3. On the high intensity curve, find the point that is 1/4 the intensity of the reading a d = 40 cm. From
your graph, read off the distance “d” corresponding to that point. What is the ration of the distance at 1/4
intensity to the distance of the measurement at 40 cm? What is this ration for the low intensity curve?
Are these two ratios nearly the same (within 20%)? Are they approximately the same as the ratios
calculated in #2?

4. On the high intensity curve, find the point that is 1/9 the intensity of the reading at d = 40 cm. From
your graph read off the distance corresponding to that point. What is the ratio of the distance at 1/9
intensity to the distance of the measurement at 40 cm? What is this ratio for the low intensity curve? Are
these two ratios nearly the same (within 20%)?
You should be aware of a certain relationship relating the apparent intensity of a light source to its
distance. The physical law that describes this relationship is called the “inverse-square law”: the
apparent intensity of a light source “I” is proportional to 1 divided by its distance squared. For example,
if a light source is moved twice as far away from you then it becomes 1/4 as bright. If the light source is
moved three times farther away then it becomes 1/9 as bright.
Since I is proportional to 1/d 2, then I = k/d 2, where k is some constant. Note that for any single source
this will mean that two measurements I D and Id at different distances D and d will obey the following:

ID/Id = D2/D2 and Id = k/d2 or

Id/ID = D2/d2

If D = 10 cm and d = 20 cm, then the ratio of intensities, I d/ID, equals 1/4.

Imagine a light bulb placed at the center of three concentric spheres. The bulb puts out a given amount
of light, but as it travels it spreads out, so that it reaches spheres of greater radius (first d = 1, the d = 2,
and d = 3) it becomes diluted in intensity, because the light spreads out over spheres with larger and larger
surface area. The surface area of a sphere is proportional to the d 2 (equal to 4 * pi * d2 to be exact).
therefore, the intensity of light is lowered by 1/d 2 for the same reason, as does the force of attraction
between electrically charged particles. An example of the latter is the hydrogen atom in which there is an
attraction between a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron in orbit around it.

5. Find the distance D at which the detector must be placed in order for the intensity to be 1/4 as much as
the intensity at a distance d = 100 cm.

6. Would you expect the inverse-square law to always hold accurately for the stars in the sky? Explain.

7. If one star is at a distance of 100 light years, how far away would a second start that is 9 times as
luminous, have to be to appear at the same brightness as the first?

8. Suppose that you can just barely see a certain star that is at a distance of 100 light years. How far
away must a star that is 4 times more luminous be to barely be seen? How about a star that is 100
times more luminous?

Table 1. High Intensity

Source
Distance Current:

Source & Background Background Source

40 cm

60 cm

80 cm

100 cm

120 cm

140 cm

Table 2. Low Intensity

Source

Distance Current:

Source & Background Background Source

40 cm

60 cm

80 cm

100 cm

120 cm

140 cm