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Gear300
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What property of visible light defines its color, the wavelength or frequency (or something else)?
Vanadium 50 said:Ah...this is actually a physiology question. The question is whether the cones in our eyes respond to frequency or wavelength.
I'll answer your question with a question: if you are swimming (and your eyes are under water), does a red object still look red?
borgwal said:It's the frequency that doesn't change when going from one medium to the other, but the wavelength does change. It's also the frequency that determines the energy of a photon and that determines whether an atom or molecule (in your eye, for instance), absorbs the photon or not. So, in that sense, frequency determines color.
Visible light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye. It is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays.
The wavelength and frequency of visible light are inversely proportional to each other. This means that as the wavelength increases, the frequency decreases, and vice versa. This relationship is described by the equation c=λν, where c is the speed of light, λ is the wavelength, and ν is the frequency.
Visible light is produced by the acceleration of charged particles. This can occur naturally, such as in the sun's core where nuclear reactions produce light, or artificially, such as in light bulbs where electricity is used to heat a filament and produce light.
The colors that can be seen in visible light are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors make up the visible spectrum, which can be seen when white light is passed through a prism and separated into its different wavelengths.
The human eye contains cells called cones that are sensitive to different wavelengths of light. When light enters the eye, it is focused onto the retina where the cones are located. The cones then send signals to the brain, which interprets the signals as different colors. The combination of signals from different cones allows us to perceive the full spectrum of visible light.