Saturday, November 15, 2008

Color Temperature - Wikipedia

Color temperature: "Because it is the standard against which other light sources are compared, the color temperature of the thermal radiation from an ideal black body radiator is defined as equal to its surface temperature in kelvin, or alternatively in mired (micro-reciprocal degrees kelvin).[1] For source other than ideal black bodies, the color temperature of the thermal radiation emitted from it may differ from its actual surface temperature. In an incandescent light bulb the light is of thermal origin and is very close to that of an ideal black-body radiator.

However, many other light sources, such as fluorescent lamps, emit light primarily by processes other than raising the temperature of a body. This means the emitted radiation does not follow the form of a black-body spectrum. These sources are assigned what is known as a correlated color temperature (CCT). CCT is the color temperature of a black body radiator which to human color perception most closely matches the light from the lamp. Because such an approximation is not required for incandescent light, the CCT for an incandescent light is simply its unadjusted temperature, derived from the comparison to a black body radiator."

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