A point source of pollution is a single identifiable source of air, water, thermal, noise or lightpollution. A point source has negligible extent, distinguishing it from other pollution source geometrics (such as nonpoint source or area source). The sources are called point sources because in mathematical modeling, they can be approximated as a mathematical point to simplify analysis.[1] Pollution point sources are identical to other physics, engineering, optics, and chemistry point sources and include:
Air pollution from an industrial source (rather than an airport or a road, considered a line source, or a forest fire, which is considered an area source, or volume source)[2]