The Naked Scientists
Toggle navigation
Login
Register
Podcasts
The Naked Scientists
eLife
Naked Genetics
Naked Astronomy
In short
Naked Neuroscience
Ask! The Naked Scientists
Question of the Week
Archive
Video
SUBSCRIBE to our Podcasts
Articles
Science News
Features
Interviews
Answers to Science Questions
Get Naked
Donate
Do an Experiment
Science Forum
Ask a Question
About
Meet the team
Our Sponsors
Site Map
Contact us
User menu
Login
Register
Search
Home
Help
Search
Tags
Recent Topics
Login
Register
Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences
Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology
How many photons does the Sun emit every second? How many reach earth?
« previous
next »
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
How many photons does the Sun emit every second? How many reach earth?
3 Replies
18359 Views
0 Tags
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Yair Doza
(OP)
Jr. Member
22
Activity:
0%
How many photons does the Sun emit every second? How many reach earth?
«
on:
13/12/2016 22:05:40 »
I found a web site claiming that the sun emits 10 to the power of 45 photons per second. I wonder how many of them hit Earth each second? How many photons enter our eyes each second in a sunny day?
«
Last Edit: 14/12/2016 15:46:57 by evan_au
»
Logged
syhprum
Naked Science Forum King!
5198
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 74 times
Re: How many photos are emitted by the sun every second? How many reach earth?
«
Reply #1 on:
13/12/2016 23:29:20 »
From memory the Sun emits energy with a mass equivalent of 4.26*10^6 tons per second assuming the photons average 2eV the number comes out at approximately 10^45
But I am prepared to have my arithmetic corrected.
The eagle eyed will note I made several corrections my memory of the Suns output and the mass equivalent energy of a 2eV photon were both wrong but at least my arithmetic was OK
«
Last Edit: 14/12/2016 00:09:43 by syhprum
»
Logged
The following users thanked this post:
Yair Doza
Janus
Hero Member
951
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 268 times
Re: How many photos are emitted by the sun every second? How many reach earth?
«
Reply #2 on:
14/12/2016 00:13:42 »
If we use the 1e45 figure for photons/sec emitted by the Sun, then you get ~1.8e36 photons striking the Earth per sec and 4.4e16 photons per sec hitting the eye (assuming a pupil diameter of 2mm.)
However, the eye figure doesn't take attenuation by the Earth's atmosphere, accounting for that leaves us with ~3.4e16 photons per sec hitting the eye. This works out to 0.013 watts entering your eye if you are staring directly into the Sun (
Not
a good idea.)
Using the second, smaller figure would decrease the photon count by a factor of 2000 in each case (but not the wattage)
Logged
The following users thanked this post:
Yair Doza
syhprum
Naked Science Forum King!
5198
Activity:
0%
Thanked: 74 times
Re: How many photos are emitted by the sun every second? How many reach earth?
«
Reply #3 on:
14/12/2016 10:49:18 »
The figure of interest is not what quantity is reaching the eye looking directly at the Sun but the quantity received when looking at typical objects illuminated by sunlight.
It is recommended that when looking directly at the Sun one should use a density 4 filter giving 40db of attenuation, is reflected Sunlight reduced by that amount ?
Logged
The following users thanked this post:
Yair Doza
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
« previous
next »
Tags:
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...