Light Attenuation

Light attenuation determines how fast the light intensity decreases with distance from objects. The light attenuation of various wavelengths of color in water was graphed for red (750nm), orange (700nm), orange (650nm), yellow (600nm), green (550nm), blue (500nm), and violet (450nm). By using the attenuation coefficient k (meters^-1), the depth Z (in meters) was determined based on the Iz/Io percentage as shown in the following equation:

 where,
     Z= depth (meters)

                                                  Iz= intensity of the light at a depth of Z meters

                                     Io= intensity of the light at the surface

                                     k= attenuation coefficient (meters^-1)

The results are graphed below using 1%-100% light attenuation and the specific k value for each color.