Peter's musings on visible light

[Rubberband]

I heard...

[QUOTE=amigo;206735]Great posts everyone, thank you!

That of course does not exclude bounced-off light from other objects. I read somewhere (can't recall where correctly, maybe here) that light does not bounce off but actually whatever it hits, it excites and the excited object emits light (photons?).

Sorry,...My teachings were that what you see are the refracted light from the oject, and what you are seeing is the pigment in the object that does not absorb that spectrum of light.

[jdodson]

recent measurements of the sun show it to be a perfect sphere!

The overall shape may indeed be spherical, but consider the sun erupts solar flares the size of earth. I can assure you the surface is not smooth and flat like a dry salt lake bed. Any form of disruption or uneveness will provide cross pattern interference allowing its own light to hit itself. Imagine the surface of the ocean, its never flat even when considering it doesnt have explosive interactions underneath of it as the sun does.

[aljhoa]

Throwing some light on the subject are:

Is it true that in space a person is not able to see stars all around them like we do here on Earth?

No, I hear that in space the stars look wonderful, bright (although not twinkling) and very clear. What has probably caused some of this confusion is that in the typical photo or video image from space, there aren't any stars. This is because the stars are much dimmer than the astronaut, Moon, space station, or whatever the image is been taken of. It is extremely hard to get the exposure correct to show the stars. Luckily, the human eye handles the different light levels much better than a camera does.
Dr. Eric Christian
(July 2001)
NASA's Cosmicopia -- Ask Us -- Stars


'"seeing is believing"
Part 2/37, in HD full screen @ mark 3:00
so I have simply downloaded some of those many high-resolution sequential still frames, animated them together and rendered them at 1080p in my first attempt to create a true high-definition video showing a series of these remarkable scenes.
ISS Stop-Motion Sequence Photography of Earth - Assorted Scenes in HD (1080p) - YouTube


Al

[madhatter]

The overall shape may indeed be spherical, but consider the sun erupts solar flares the size of earth. I can assure you the surface is not smooth and flat like a dry salt lake bed. Any form of disruption or uneveness will provide cross pattern interference allowing its own light to hit itself. Imagine the surface of the ocean, its never flat even when considering it doesnt have explosive interactions underneath of it as the sun does.

solar flares and sun activity do not effect the shape of the photosphere, it's density is far greater than the corona. the photosphere topology may be in micro vs macro terms bumpy however it's still opaque to visible light. the H-alpha light from the corona is scattered in all directions, reflectivity off the photosphere would require more energy hitting it then it supplies to the surface, not likely. besides the biggest factor in visibility is the 'filter' of the ISM.

All the 'digital' pics on the web are all 'enhanced' and may also be created from 'multiple' layers.

the physics of light and EM waves will show that the visible light that the human eye can 'see' without filters would be a dull/dark red. but given that the high energy radiation would also cause photons to be emitted within your eye, it'd be a dazzling light show!

[kcarring]

Light, visible... yes. In slow motion even.


1,000,000,000,000 Frames/Second Photography - Ramesh Raskar - YouTube

[pault]

The TED video seems to confirm Peter's point - I can't see the light until it hits the Coke bottle.

pt

[Armagdn03]

Light, visible... yes. In slow motion even.


1,000,000,000,000 Frames/Second Photography - Ramesh Raskar - YouTube

Freaking AWESOME.....

[Farmhand]

Many people have similar musings, crazy high frequency energy hits the density
of the atmosphere slows down and and the result is light and heat, everything
begins with energy, we are only able to perceive a very small amount of the
actual light spectrum. When energy is released by a fire I think the same thing
happens except it is already in atmosphere and so the light is pretty much
immediate. If visible light was produced in space everything would be white.
It's about speed,frequency and the resistance the HF wave energy encounters,
when crazy high frequency energy encounters a suitable resistance it slows
down and dissipates energy as heat and light ect.

This is what I wrote on another forum. on the 31 of July 2012, the way I see
it is a result of reading different materials, logic and my own thinking.

These are just musings, thoughts.

My theory is visible light, is a result of light frequency energy spectrum, light
is not the source of energy. Heat same thing. Or a better way to describe it
might be the result of the interaction of universal incredibly high frequency
energy and "matter" or stuff "particles" these interactions transform the
energy into differing wave lengths.

1. A flame produces electro-magnetic radiation as a result of chemical
reactions releasing light frequency energy in a "range" which causes light by energizing
the atmosphere resulting in a conversion of some energy to visible light frequency, some to heat frequencies.

2. The flame is like the sun, so much energy is released that some becomes
heat in a short distance, if the atmosphere is too thick with say smoke or
dust which are too large to be excited to light, the larger particles absrorb the
energy and heat, they block/deflect the light energy, the fire is dimmer, flickers. We detect
the visible light energy wavelength and perceive visible light.

We can see the sun and stars because the energy they emit causes some
visible light in and around the sun itself. Just as it does when the escaped energy
hits our atmosphere.


Cheers

[bboj]

Does energy exist?. As far as I understand light - if it has frequency than it is a wave - a wave in something - and when it hits some obstacle it changes as well as the target. Energy is only the potential to do work.
What do you think?