Intensity vs. Duration

It is possible that the plants grown under the strobe light, with a 50% duty cycle, will grow as if under half the illumination at 100% duty cycle. In other words the plants average out the intensity of the light in relation to time. The plant growth factor would be unity in such a case and show no appreciable gain.

This is a critical point and bears repeating. If the average growth of the plants grown under the 50% duty cycle of the strobe equals the growth rate of plants under half light intensity at 100% duty cycle then unity is reached and there is no appreciable gain.

On the other hand, if the plants grown under the strobe light show an increase growth over the control plants, then we have increased growth per unit of energy expended and the experiment is a resounding success.

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