Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> To say nothing of the absorption and scattering of the Earth's atmosphere...
> >
> > Probably not nearly as important as the error introduced by assuming both star
> > and bulb emit only in the visible.
> >
> > Otherwise, not such dubious assumptions at all!
>
> Well, at least he didn't say an LED or a flourescent tube or something
> with a complex emission system. A normal light bulb and a star are
> (AFAIK) both simple black body radiators, so you just need to know their
> colour temperature...

That just tells you the peak power output. The total power output might not be
as much as an order of magnitude different, but it will be different.

In any case, for a lightbulb, less than 10% of that 100W will be visible. An LED
or fluorescent tube will emit mostly in the visible, so the power will be much
more accurate for this comparison.

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