What is the relationship between luminance and illumination for a Lambert surface?

Study for the NBEO Visual Perception Exam. Dive into flashcards and multiple choice questions, each with hints and thorough explanations. Prepare comprehensively for your NBEO test!

In the context of a Lambert surface, the relationship between luminance and illumination is indeed linear. A Lambert surface is defined as a perfectly diffusing surface that reflects light uniformly in all directions. The luminance of such a surface is directly proportional to the illumination it receives.

This means that if the amount of illumination striking the surface increases, the resulting luminance observed from that surface will also increase in a proportional manner. In simple terms, doubling the illumination will result in double the luminance, demonstrating a linear relationship. This characteristic is key in understanding how light interacts with surfaces and is foundational in fields such as photometry and visual perception.

Other relationships like inverse, quadratic, or cubic would suggest non-uniform changes in luminance relative to illumination, which is not the case for a Lambert surface. Therefore, the linear relationship is fundamental to describing the behavior of light reflecting off this type of surface.

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