Page 1 of 1
Photometry on PGRE?
Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 6:07 pm
by Blinky
Are there questions on photometry on PGRE? I picked up a physics problems book and it has a section on photometry, I glanced over it and OMG... I have never even heard of all this terminology:
Luminous intensity
Luminance
Illuminance
Luminosity
Luminous flux
Ok, I have heard about brightness and intensity and I know what they are, but... I looked in Halliday - not a single one of these words show up in the index. So I'm doing something wrong I thought, and clearly my undergrad optics course was a rip-off, since we never learned anything about those things. Then I read that someone recommends a book by Hecht, well guess what - same thing, it's got nothing on anything that starts with an "Lu".
Please tell me that there's nothing to worry about and this sort of thing won't be on PGRE
Re: Photometry on PGRE?
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:38 am
by physicsworks
Blinky wrote:Are there questions on photometry on PGRE?
I don't think so, but you should check this.
Ok, I have heard about brightness and intensity and I know what they are, but... I looked in Halliday - not a single one of these words show up in the index.
what makes you think it
should be in Halliday&Resnik? It's a freshman (engineering) course. In post-soviet countries this book can be used for high school physics class. Nevertheless, since luminous intensity is one of the SI basic units I think H&R should at least
mention these things.
P.S. You'll definitely find this kind of stuff in "Principles of optics" by Born&Wolf.
Re: Photometry on PGRE?
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:28 am
by HappyQuark
Blinky wrote:Are there questions on photometry on PGRE? I picked up a physics problems book and it has a section on photometry, I glanced over it and OMG... I have never even heard of all this terminology:
Luminous intensity
Luminance
Illuminance
Luminosity
Luminous flux
Ok, I have heard about brightness and intensity and I know what they are, but... I looked in Halliday - not a single one of these words show up in the index. So I'm doing something wrong I thought, and clearly my undergrad optics course was a rip-off, since we never learned anything about those things. Then I read that someone recommends a book by Hecht, well guess what - same thing, it's got nothing on anything that starts with an "Lu".
Please tell me that there's nothing to worry about and this sort of thing won't be on PGRE
I don't recall there being anything specifically from photometry on the PGRE but most of the terms you identified I do recall seeing in my optics coursework so I wouldn't think it too odd to see it on the exam.
Re: Photometry on PGRE?
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:57 pm
by Blinky
physicsworks wrote:Blinky wrote:Are there questions on photometry on PGRE?
I don't think so, but you should check this.
Ok, I have heard about brightness and intensity and I know what they are, but... I looked in Halliday - not a single one of these words show up in the index.
what makes you think it
should be in Halliday&Resnik? It's a freshman (engineering) course.
I also mentioned optics by Hecht, it is a book on optics only and there's none of that stuff in there.
You'll definitely find this kind of stuff in "Principles of optics" by Born&Wolf.
[/quote]
It's not really a question of where I can find it. Sure, I know where to look if I absolutely have to find these concepts, but when I looked at the books that people tend to recommend for PGRE prep., i.e. H&R and Hecht, there was nothing there. And it's not mentioned in the list of topics by the GRE web site, though I haven't dont a single practice test yet.
Anyhow. Might be a good idea to study it regardless, it doesn't look all that hard, just unfamiliar.
Re: Photometry on PGRE?
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 2:21 pm
by physicsworks
Blinky wrote:but when I looked at the books that people tend to recommend for PGRE prep., i.e. H&R and Hecht, there was nothing there.
then probably there will be no photometry on the PGRE
Well, I can say that I cannot remember any single photometry problem in all 4 practice tests plus two real exams that I took.