photometricadj.
/ˌfəʊtəˈmɛtrɪk/, U.S. /ˌfoʊdəˈmɛtrɪk/ 1. Science. Of or relating to photometry; involving the use of a photometer.
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the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > light > intensity of light, luminosity > [adjective]
photometrical1795
photometric1820
photoscopic1872
1820 W. T. Brande in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 110 27 I have availed myself of a photometric thermometer.
1849 Lit. Gaz. 24 Feb. 132/1 He had tested by the photometric method of equality of shadows the intensity of the light as compared with a common wax candle.
1869 E. Dunkin Midnight Sky 175 Interesting photometric experiments..on the relative light of the principal stars.
1911 Astrophysical Jrnl. 34 119 This determination of c is the most difficult photometric measurement I have yet attempted, but there can be no doubt that the observations show this ellipticity.
1946 Nature 21 Dec. 918/1 The distance between those points where the curvature of the photometric record changes sign.
2001 Surveyor May 17/3 The intensity of a lighting source is measured in candelas, the basic unit of photometric quantity.
2. Chiefly Astronomy. Of a physical quantity: measured with a photometer; determined from measurements so made.
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1906 Science 9 Feb. 230/1 The reciprocals of the temperatures of a black body and any substance having the same photometric brightness are directly proportional.
1968 Jrnl. Soc. Motion Picture & Telev. Engineers 77 1005 The usual engineering interpretation of luminance (photometric brightness), luminous intensity per unit projected area, is adequate for many applications.
1980 Astron. & Astrophysics 91 186 The photometric distance of this cluster is found to be 2.2±0.2 kpc.
1993 A. H. Batten & F. B. Wood in J. Sahade et al. Realm of Interacting Binary Stars 11 The difficulties of old-fashioned rectification gave a bad name to such ‘photometric’ mass-ratios (derived from the observed effects of distortion of the stars).
3. Astronomy. Of the sky, conditions, etc.: suitable for using a photometer to make astronomical observation, in that there is little atmospheric turbulence. Contrasted with spectroscopic.
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1971 Nature 29 Jan. 294/2 They enjoyed remarkably long periods of ‘photometric’ sky conditions.
1981 Science 20 Nov. 907/3 Some observations are taken under poor photometric conditions.
1992 Astron. Jrnl. 104 130/1 The rms errors were 0.019 in C−T1, 0.011 in T1−T2, and 0.018 in T1, indicating the night was indeed photometric.
2001 Chinese Jrnl. Astron. & Astrophysics 1 372 Normally two or three OG standards are observed on every photometric night.
Compounds
photometric bench n. = photometer bench n. at photometer n. Compounds.
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1894 G. W. Patterson & M. R. Patterson tr. A. Palaz Treat. Industr. Photometry iv. 178 The photometric bench is an optical bench strongly and carefully constructed.
1966 Large & Wilman in H. Hewitt & A. S. Vause Lamps & Lighting vii. 89 Where measurements involving direction and distance are concerned a photometric bench is required.
2001 Jrnl. Res. National Inst. Standards & Technol. (Nexis) 1 Jan. 151 A schematic drawing of the major features of the photometric bench that is used to maintain the NIST candela scale.
photometric binary n. Astronomy a celestial object that is inferred to be a binary from photometric measurements of its brightness.
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1944 Science 3 Nov. 393/2 If it happened that a spectroscopic binary is at the same time a photometric binary, we can do some additional computations.
2000 Astron. & Astrophysics 361 937 The three hot stars in 47 Tuc all have 10,000 K < Teff < 15,000 K and include one photometric binary, which suggests that they might have a different physical origin than the dominant red HB population.
photometric system n. Astronomy a system for inferring some of the physical parameters of a star from photometric measurements made at certain definite wavelengths.
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1903 Science 6 Nov. 596.2 In order to arrange all the brightnesses in magnitude, values were taken for the first three, which accorded with the photometric system of Harvard Observatory.
1987 G. Walker Astron. Observ. i. 13 In most widely used broad band photometric systems the magnitude of Vega is zero at all wavelengths at which it has been detected.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1820