young

A proposed unit of luminous flux for the Y stimulus in the trichromatic color system.

Each new weighting function leads to a new concept and a new unit. But strangely enough, the units of the colorimetric case have never been named. For the luminous flux obtained when w(λ) = and when radiant power is expressed in watts, we suggest the name young (Thomas Young, 1773-1829). For the corresponding unit associated with we suggest the munsell (Albert H. Munsell, 1858-1918); and for the unit associated with , we suggest the ostwald (Wilhelm Ostwald, 1853-1932).¹

The English physicist Thomas Young predicted the existence of red, green and blue receptors in the human retina. He is remembered more often for the two-slit experiment that established the wave nature of light.

1. Parry Moon and Domina Eberle Spencer.
Analytical Representation of Trichromatic Data.
Journal of the Optical Society of America. vol 35, number 6, pages 399-427 (1945).

Page 410.