luminous flux

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 2789
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:19 am
Location: Chennai, India
Thanked: 206 times
Followed by:43 members
GMAT Score:640

luminous flux

by GmatKiss » Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:24 am
The "luminous flux," or perceived brightness, of a light source is measured in
lumens and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the light. If
a light source produces 200 lumens at a distance of 3 meters, at what distance will
the light source produce a luminous flux of 25 lumens?

3R2
9R3
6R2
6R3
8R2

Please read 3R2 as 3(ROOT(2))
Source: — Problem Solving |

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3835
Joined: Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:00 pm
Location: Milpitas, CA
Thanked: 1854 times
Followed by:523 members
GMAT Score:770

by Anurag@Gurome » Sun Aug 21, 2011 1:28 am
GmatKiss wrote:The "luminous flux," or perceived brightness, of a light source is measured in lumens and is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the light. If a light source produces 200 lumens at a distance of 3 meters, at what distance will the light source produce a luminous flux of 25 lumens?
As the luminous flux is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the light, then the ratio of the luminous flux of a light at two different distances will be equal to the inverse ratio of the square of the distances.

Hence, 200/25 = d²/3², where d is the required distance where the flux will be 25 lumens.

Hence, d² = (3²)*(200/25) = 8*3²
-----> d = √(8*3²) = 6√2

The correct answer is C.
Anurag Mairal, Ph.D., MBA
GMAT Expert, Admissions and Career Guidance
Gurome, Inc.
1-800-566-4043 (USA)

Join Our Facebook Groups
GMAT with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/272466352793633/
Admissions with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/461459690536574/
Career Advising with Gurome
https://www.facebook.com/groups/360435787349781/