Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Radiometer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A radiometer is a device used to measure the radiant flux or power in electromagnetic radiation. Although the term is perhaps most generally applied to a device which measures infrared radiation, it can also be applied to detectors operating any wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum.
The radiation detector within a radiometer is most often a bolometer which absorbs the radiation falling on it and, as a result, rises in temperature. This rise can then be measured by a thermometer of some type. This temperature rise can be related to the power in the incident radiation.
An early detector of infrared and visible radiation (light) was the Crookes radiometer. A more sensitive device, employing a different principle, is the Nichols radiometer.
A Microwave radiometer operates in the Microwave region of the electromagnetic spectum.
The term radiometer is occasionally used as shorthand for a Crookes radiometer, a device in which a rotor with dark and light vanes in a partial vacuum spins when exposed to light.
 |
This physics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- Crookes radiometer (physics novelty, toy)
- Microwave radiometer (instrument)
- Pyranometer (instrument)