foot-candle

American

[foot-kan-dl] / ˈfʊtˈkæn dl /

Or footcandle

noun

Optics.

a unit of illuminance or illumination, equivalent to the illumination produced by a source of one candle at a distance of one foot and equal to one lumen incident per square foot. FC

foot-candle British

noun

a former unit of illumination, equal to one lumen per square foot or 10.764 lux

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of foot-candle

First recorded in 1905–10

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How does foot-candle compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

lux vs. foot-candle

Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

foot-candle

A lumen is the quantity of light which falls on one square foot if the intensity of illumination is one foot-candle.

From Artificial Light Its Influence upon Civilization by Matthew Luckiesh

If a source of light has a luminous intensity of one candle in all directions, the illumination at a distance of one foot in any direction is said to be a foot-candle.

From Artificial Light Its Influence upon Civilization by Matthew Luckiesh

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023