Showing posts with label Inverse square law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inverse square law. Show all posts

Saturday, June 4, 2016

Inverse Square Law



Inverse Square Law 


Similar to my post "Galileo Galilei Square Cube Law" is this quick entry will deal with a simple law: the Inverse Square Law. 

The Inverse Square Law states that energy measured from twice as far is spread over four times the area, and so on. The farther away from a point source of energy, the less its intensity. 



I = 1/Distance²

I = Intensity 

Distance = the radius of an imagined sphere around the point source

As you can see in my drawing, every arrow is one unit of distance. Square the unit and divide into one and you get the area. For example:

2 Distance² = 4
3 Distance² = 9
  4 Distance² = 16

This is similar to Galileo's Square Cube Law: if you take a cube and dice it into smaller cubes: the total volume stays the same, but the surface area keeps growing the more cubes you dice. The Inverse Square Law is definitely more intuitive.

With radiation, the farther away you are-the safer you are. Gravitational fields lessen in intensity. The same with electromagnetic fields.



My intensity never diminishes...unless there's catnip around.