VISIBLE LIGHT

HOW THIS WAVE IS CREATED

• Like a rainbow, each color has a different wavelength
• Red is the longest and violet is the shortest
• When all the waves come together they create a white light
• The white light goes through a prism and is broken down into the colors of the visible light spectrum

VISIBLE LIGHT IN SOCIETY

• We use visible light waves everyday when we are seeing objects
• Sunlight is a natural source of visible light waves
• Light bulbs act the same as sunlight but are not natural
• The waves come off of the sun or light bulbs to reflect onto objects and give us the color that we see in our everyday lives

HOW WE SEE VISIBLE LIGHT

• When we focus on an object the cornea, iris, and pupil let the light waves enter the lens
• The lens flips the image upside down and projects it to the retina. This stimulates photoreceptors (rods and cones)

HOW WE SEE VISIBLE LIGHT CONT.

• Cones detect the color and the detail of the light
• Rods detect grays and movement in the light
• Together cones and rods convert the light hitting the retina and send electrical impulse to the brain and the brain processes the info into the image we are seeing

POSSIBLE DANGERS

• Blue-violet waves can cause damage to the retina cells which increases the chance of getting macular degeneration
• Macular degeneration is an eye condition which a portion of retina deteriorates
• Some light can be so intense it damages the receptor cells in your eye which can lead to blindness

WAVELENGTH

• Violet-400nm
• Indigo-445nm
• Blue-475nm
• Green-510nm
• Yellow-570nm
• Orange-590nm
• Red-650nm
• The largest wavelength is a little under 1/10th the size of a piece of paper which is 1000nm

FREQUENCY

• Violet-700-790THz
• Indigo-660-700THz
• Blue-580-600THz
• Green-530-580THz
• Yellow-510-530THz
• Orange-480-510THz
• Red-405-480THz

INTERESTING FACT

• Visible light is the only electromagnetic wave we can see

The light wave going through the prism

This shows the size and info of each wave

SOURCES

• Science.hq.nasa.gov
• Nationalgeographic.org
• Spectrums.com