Some insights into why the perception of Mach bands is strong for luminance ramps and weak or vanishing for luminance steps.

In this paper we present some demonstrations concerning the width of Mach bands and henceforth hypothesize certain relations. We show that it is the variation in width of Mach bands in relation to luminance gradients which is responsible for Mach bands being strong for luminance ramps and weak or vanishing for luminance steps. We present the results of the experiments carried out by us using some of these demonstrations to provide support for our claims.