A light curve is a graph of intensity over time. Such a graph is made by
counting the number of photons coming from a source over a period of time.
For example, by counting the number of X-rays being emitted by a star every
second for an hour, you could generate a light curve from your observations.
Your light curve would tell you how bright your source is and the amount of
time it remained at that brightness. A graph similar to a light curve can
be generated for any physical measurement which is repeated over and over in
time. You could count how many people passed in front of you during a ten
minute time interval while you sat on a park bench during your lunch hour.
You could generate a "light curve" for this as well, but it would have no
astronomical value (of course!).
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