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light
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2Light
The term light, as commonly used, refers to the kind of radiant electromagnetic energy that is associated with vision. In a broader sense, light includes the entire range of radiation known as the electromagnetic spectrum. The branch of science dealing with light, its origin and propagation, its effects, and other phenomena associated with it is called optics. Spectroscopy is the branch of optics that pertains to the production and investigation of spectra. See Optics, Spectroscopy
Principal effects
The electromagnetic spectrum is a broad band of radiant energy that extends over a range of wavelengths running from trillionths of inches to hundreds of miles; wavelengths of visible light are measured in hundreds of thousandths of an inch. Arranged in order of increasing wavelength, the radiation making up the electromagnetic spectrum is termed gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays, visible light, infrared waves, microwaves, radio waves, and very long electromagnetic waves. See Electromagnetic radiation
The fact that light travels at a finite speed or velocity is well established. In round numbers, the speed of light in vacuum or air may be said to be 186,000 mi/s or 300,000 km/s. Measurements of the speed of light, c, which had attracted physicists for 308 years, came to an end in 1983 when the new definition of the meter fixed the value of the speed of light. Highly precise values of c were obtained by extending absolute frequency measurements into a region of the electromagnetic spectrum where wavelengths can be most accurately measured. These advances were facilitated by the use of stabilized lasers and high-speed tungsten-nickel diodes which were used to measure the lasers' frequencies. The measurements of the speed of light and of the frequency of lasers yielded a value of the speed of light limited only by the standard of length which was then in use. This permitted a redefinition of the meter in which the value of the speed of light assumed an exact value, 299,792,458 m/s. The meter is defined as the length of the path traveled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299 792 458 of a second. See Laser
One of the most easily observed facts about light is its tendency to travel in straight lines. Careful observation shows, however, that a light ray spreads slightly when passing the edges of an obstacle. This phenomenon is called diffraction. The reflection of light is also well known. Reflection of light from smooth optical surfaces occurs so that the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence, a fact that is most readily observed with a plane mirror. When light is reflected irregularly and diffusely, the phenomenon is termed scattering. The scattering of light by gas particles in the atmosphere causes the blue color of the sky. See Diffraction, Reflection of electromagnetic radiation
The type of bending of light rays called refraction is caused by the fact that light travels at different speeds in different media—faster, for example, in air than in either glass or water. Refraction occurs when light passes from one medium to another in which it moves at a different speed. Familiar examples include the change in direction of light rays in going through a prism, and the bent appearance of a slick partially immersed in water. See Refraction of waves
In the phenomenon called interference, rays of light emerging from two parallel slits combine on a screen to produce alternating light and dark bands. This effect can be obtained quite easily in the laboratory, and is observed in the colors produced by a thin film of oil on the surface of a pool of water. Polarization of light is usually shown with Polaroid disks. Such disks are quite transparent individually. When two of them are placed together, however, the degree of transparency of the combination depends upon the relative orientation of the disks. It can be varied from ready transmission of light to almost total opacity, simply by rotating one disk with respect to the other. See Interference of waves, Polarized light
When light is absorbed by certain substances, chemical changes take place. This fact forms the basis for the science of photochemistry.
Theory
Phenomena involving light may be classed into three groups: electromagnetic wave phenomena, corpuscular or quantum phenomena, and relativistic effects. The relativistic effects appear to influence similarly the observation of both corpuscular and wave phenomena. See Relativity
Wave phenomena
Interference and diffraction are the most striking manifestations of the wave character of light. Their fundamental similarity can be demonstrated in a number of experiments. The wave aspect of the entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation is most convincingly shown by the similarity of diffraction pictures produced on a photographic plate, placed at some distance behind a diffraction grating, by radiations of different frequencies, such as x-rays and visible light. The interference phenomena of light are, moreover, very similar to interference of electronically produced microwaves and radio waves.
Polarization demonstrates the transverse character of light waves. Further proof of the electromagnetic character of light is found in the possibility of inducing, in a transparent body that is being traversed by a beam of plane-polarized light, the property of rotating the plane of polarization of the beam when the body is placed in a magnetic field. See Faraday effect
The fact that the velocity of light had been calculated from electric and magnetic parameters (permittivity and permeability) was at the root of Maxwell's conclusion in 1865 that “light, including heat and other radiations if any, is a disturbance in the form of waves propagated…according to electromagnetic laws.” Finally, the observation that electrons and neutrons can give rise to diffraction patterns quite similar to those produced by visible light has made it necessary to ascribe a wave character to particles. See Electron diffraction, Neutron diffraction
Corpuscular phenomena
In its interactions with matter, light exchanges energy only in discrete amounts, called quanta. This fact is difficult to reconcile with the idea that light energy is spread out in a wave, but is easily visualized in terms of corpuscles, or photons, of light.
The radiation from theoretically perfect heat radiators, called blackbodies, involves the exchange of energy between radiation and matter in an enclosed cavity. The observed frequency distribution of the radiation emitted by the enclosure at a given temperature of the cavity can be correctly described by theory only if one assumes that light of frequency ν is absorbed in integral multiples of a quantum of energy equal to hν, where h is a fundamental physical constant called Planck's constant.
When a monochromatic beam of electromagnetic radiation illuminates the surface of a solid (or less commonly, a liquid), electrons are ejected from the surface in the phenomenon known as photoemission or the external photoelectric effect. It is found that the emission of these photoelectrons, as they are called, is immediate, and independent of the intensity of the light beam, even at very low light intensities. This fact excludes the possibility of accumulation of energy from the light beam until an amount corresponding to the kinetic energy of the ejected electron has been reached.
The scattering of x-rays of frequency ν0 by the lighter elements is caused by the collision of x-ray photons with electrons. Under such circumstances, both a scattered x-ray photon and a scattered electron are observed, and the scattered x-ray has a lower frequency than the impinging x-ray. The kinetic energy of the impinging x-ray, the scattered x-ray, and the scattered electron, as well as their relative directions, are in agreement with calculations involving the conservation of energy and momentum. See Compton effect, Heat radiation, Photon
Quantum theories
The need for reconciling Maxwell's theory of the electromagnetic field, which describes the electromagnetic wave character of light, with the particle nature of photons, which demonstrates the equally important corpuscular character of light, has resulted in the formulation of several theories which go a long way toward giving a satisfactory unified treatment of the wave and the corpuscular picture. These theories incorporate, on one hand, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, first set forth by P. A. M. Dirac, P. Jordan, W. Heisenberg, and W. Pauli, and on the other, the earlier quantum mechanics of L. de Broglie, Heisenberg, and E. Schrödinger. Unresolved theoretical difficulties persist, however, in the higher-than-first approximations of the interactions between light and elementary particles.
Dirac's synthesis of the wave and corpuscular theories of light is based on rewriting Maxwell's equations in a Hamiltonian form resembling the Hamiltonian equations of classical mechanics. Using the same formalism involved in the transformation of classical into wave-mechanical equations by the introduction of the quantum of action hν, Dirac obtained a new equation of the electromagnetic field. The solutions of this equation require quantized waves, corresponding to photons. The superposition of these solutions represents the electromagnetic field. The quantized waves are subject to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. The quantized description of radiation cannot be taken literally in terms of either photons or waves, but rather is a description of the probability of occurrence in a given region of a given interaction or observation. See Hamilton's equations of motion, Quantum electrodynamics, Quantum field theory, Quantum mechanics, Relativistic quantum theory, Uncertainty principle
light
Electromagnetic radiation to which the human eye is sensitive; light is thus also called visible or optical radiation. The wavelength range varies from person to person but usually lies within the limits of 380 to 750 nanometers (daytime). Light therefore forms a very narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum between the infrared and ultraviolet bands. As the wavelength decreases, the color of the light changes through the spectral hues of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. These colors, which may be seen in a rainbow or produced by a prism, form the visible spectrum. In daylight, the eye is most sensitive to greenish-yellow light of wavelength about 550 nm; the dark-adapted eye has peak sensitivity around 510 nm, the range extending to about 620 nm. Optical astronomy covers wavelengths from about 300 to 900 nm, i.e. slightly wider than the human range. The Earth's atmosphere is transparent to light so that astronomy at optical wavelengths has not experienced the problems with detection and observation that have bedeviled studies at other wavelengths. Atmospheric turbulence does, however, adversely affect ground-based optical astronomy, as do clouds and precipitation. See atmospheric windows. See also light pollution.Light
Light
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)Light is the oldest British Spiritualist journal, founded in 1881 by William Stainton Moses and Dawson Rogers. It was issued weekly. In recent years it was issued as the official journal of the College of Psychic Studies, London, England.
Sources:
What does it mean when you dream about a light?
Illumination in a dream can symbolize the shedding of light on a situation or problem, enlightenment of one’s consciousness, and lighting the way on a physical or spiritual journey. The extinguishing of light may signify the end of an old situation. Spiritually, this is a very positive symbol.
light
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Light
ApolloLIGHT
A project in the CERN ECP/TP group whereby documents resulting from the software life cycle are available as hypertext.
visible light
The part of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans perceive. The infrared and ultraviolet bands precede and follow visible light. See visible light communication. |
| Visible Light |
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| Our eyes perceive a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths from (approximately) 400 to 750 nanometers provide us with our view of the physical universe. |
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| Visible Light |
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| Our eyes perceive a tiny sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelengths from (approximately) 400 to 750 nanometers provide us with our view of the physical universe. |
Light
(dreams)Light
(1) In the narrow sense, light is visible radiation, that is, electromagnetic waves in the range of frequencies perceived by the human eye. This range extends from 7.5 × 1014 to 4.3 × 1014 hertz (Hz) and corresponds to the range of wavelengths in a vacuum from 400 to 700 nanometers (nm). The eye is able to detect light of very high intensity in a somewhat broader frequency range. The spectral sensitivity of the average human eye—that is, the dependence of the eye’s sensitivity to light on the frequency of the light—is characterized by the spectral luminous efficiency curve, or luminosity curve. Calculations in illuminating engineering are based on this curve. In the general case, but not in every individual case, differences in light-wave frequencies or sets of frequencies are peceived by man as differences in color.
(2) In the broad sense, light is optical radiation and includes radiation in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared regions of the spectrum. The range of frequencies in this case extends from approximately 3 × 1011 Hz to approximately 3 × 1017 Hz; the corresponding range of wavelengths in a vacuum is from 1 mm to 1 nm. In this optical range the physical properties of the radiation share many common features, and the same methods can to a large extent be used to investigate radiation throughout the range (see). In particular, it is in the optical range that the wave and corpuscular properties of electromagnetic radiation begin to show up simultaneously in a clear manner.
The principal phenomena characteristic of light and of the processes of the interaction of light with matter are discussed in various articles of the encyclopedia, including DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT, INTERFERENCE OF LIGHT, CRYSTAL OPTICS, MAGNETO-OPTICS, METAL OPTICS, OPTICAL ACTIVITY, REFLECTION OF LIGHT, ABSORPTION OF LIGHT, REFRACTION OF LIGHT, POLARIZATION OF LIGHT, AND SCATTERING OF LIGHT.
A. P. GAGARIN