What is Light?
Light is what allows us to see where objects are.
The main sources of light are the Sun, man-made
lamps and fire. Without the Sun, we'd be in the dark.
Isaac Newton didn't only study apples and the Laws of Motion,
he also studied light and the 'phenomenon of colours'.
He bought a prism in a local market in about 1700 and
used it to split the sunlight into the colours of the rainbow.
You can go beyond the blue to the ultraviolet (UV)
rays that give you a suntan, to X-rays that are used in hospitals,
and beyond the red to infra-red which allows you
to see in the dark. Beyond infra-red are radio waves, which a radio
(surprise, surprise) can detect and transform into music!
You have probably never thought of these as being forms of
light, but here are some pictures of the Sun to prove it.
Click on the image for larger versions.
| Radio image
| Ultraviolet image
| X-ray image
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