What Is Visible Light?

A prism can break white light up into the visible light spectrum.

Credit: NASA

Visible light is a form of electromagnetic (EM) radiation, as are radio waves, infrared radiation, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays
and microwaves. Generally, visible light is defined as the wavelengths that are visible to most human eyes.

EM radiation is transmitted in waves or particles at different wavelengths and frequencies. This broad range of
wavelengths is known as the electromagnetic spectrum. That spectrum is typically divided into seven regions in order of
decreasing wavelength and increasing energy and frequency. The common designations are radio waves, microwaves,
infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), X-rays and gamma-rays.

Color
Perhaps the most important characteristic of visible light is color. Color is both an inherent property of light and an artifact
of the human eye. Objects don't "have" color, according to Glenn Elert, author of the website The Physics Hypertextbook.
Rather, they give off light that "appears" to be a color. In other words, Elert writes, color exists only in the mind of the
beholder.

Light at the lower end of the visible spectrum, having a longer wavelength, about 740 nm, is seen as red; light in the
middle of the spectrum is seen as green; and light at the upper end of the spectrum, with a wavelength of about 380 nm,
is seen as violet. All other colors that we perceive are mixtures of these colors.

For instance, yellow contains both red and green; cyan is a mixture of green and blue, and magenta is blend of red and
blue. White light contains all colors in combination. Black is a total absence of light. The first person to realize that white
light was made up of the colors of the rainbow was Isaac Newton

Visible Light

WAVELENGTHS OF VISIBLE LIGHT

All electromagnetic radiation is light, but we can only see a small portion of this radiation—the portion we call visible light. Cone-

shaped cells in our eyes act as receivers tuned to the wavelengths in this narrow band of the spectrum. Other portions of the spectrum

have wavelengths too large or too small and energetic for the biological limitations of our perception.

As the full spectrum of visible light travels through a prism, the wavelengths separate into the colors of the rainbow because each

color is a different wavelength. Violet has the shortest wavelength, at around 380 nanometers, and red has the longest wavelength, at

around 700 nanometers.

(Left) Isaac Newton's experiment in 1665 showed that a prism bends visible light andthat each color refracts at a slightly different angle depending on the wavelength of the color.Credit: Troy

Benesch.(Right) Each color in a rainbow corresponds to a different wavelength of electromagnetic spectrum.

A prism is a wedge-shaped transparent body which causes incident light to be separated by

color upon exiting.

Visible Light Waves

Visible light waves are the only electromagnetic waves we can see. We see these waves as the colors of the rainbow. Each
color has a different wavelength. Red has the longest wavelength and violet has the shortest wavelength. When all the
waves are seen together, they make white light.

When white light shines

through a prism or
through water vapor like
this rainbow, the white
light is broken apart into
the colors of the visible
light spectrum.

How do we "see" using Visible Light?

Cones in our eyes are receivers for these tiny
visible light waves. The Sun is a natural source
for visible light waves and our eyes see the
reflection of this sunlight off the objects around
us.

The color of an object that we see is the color of

light reflected. All other colors are absorbed.

Light bulbs are another source of visible light

waves.

There are two types of color images that can be made from satellite data - true-color and false-color. To take true-color
images, like this one, the satellite that took it used sensors to record data about the red, green, and blue visible light waves
that were reflecting off the earth's surface. The data were combined later on a computer. The result is similar to what our
eyes see.