Questions related to the perception and measurement of light (primarily in the visible range), its mathematical description, the reproduction of colors by different means, color combinations, etc. Please use the tag [electromagnetic-radiation] if you want to refer to the general form of light.
2
votes
4answers
137 views
Light refraction and causality
One way how to look at refraction by a dielectric medium like water or glass is that (phase) velocity of light decreases because it is the wavelength rather than the frequency of the light which ...
1
vote
1answer
634 views
Find the dispersion of the slab?
I've been having trouble with this for a few days and already used up all my tries on the homework for it, but have the final is coming next week. Thus I would like to know how do this, however I ...
2
votes
2answers
97 views
Luminescence when ripping (answered) and when pouring (not answered)
As a father to a small child, I have often observed this phenomenon but have until i posted this question not found the vocabulary to Google for it.
Can you explain what I am seeing?
In a darkened ...
0
votes
1answer
69 views
What is the new distance for resolution of the images? [closed]
The taillights of an automobile are $1.25\:\rm{m}$ apart. Assume the pupil of a person's eye has a diameter of $5\:\rm{mm}$ and the light has an average wavelength of $604\:\rm{mm}$. At night, on a ...
1
vote
4answers
2k views
Why is there a difference between additive and subtractive trichromatic color theories?
Helmholtz distinguished between additive and subtractive trichromatic color theories.
Additive theories concern optical combinations of colored light sources and are usually modelled on RGB while ...
3
votes
5answers
2k views
Is it possible to witness a circular rainbow?
What conditions would make it possible to see a naturally occurring fully 360° circular rainbow? Would it even be possible?
1
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2answers
4k views
3d holograms - How are they created?
How do 3d holograms work exactly? I read that there is a laser in use, but how are the multiple perspectives generated and how is the light trapped? in a certain area to create the effect?
...
-3
votes
1answer
103 views
Why is neutrino beam not considered light?
I am trying to understand why physicists consider a neutrino beam not to be light.
Here's the research that I did to find the answer:
...
1
vote
1answer
342 views
When a color LCD/LED display is off it is black, when on it is colored. What color to light is an LCD/LED display
When a modern display using pixels is turned on its colors are different than the black that the screen is actually made up of. When put in light, such as sunlight, does the screen react to the color ...
1
vote
2answers
453 views
Colour emitted at a specific temperature (color temperature?)
There are quite a few nagging questions I have been having over the years, I do not require a full explanation, just some guidance in my assumptions and pointers if I am very wrong.
My basic ...
9
votes
2answers
588 views
Does a photon exert a gravitational pull?
I know a photon has zero rest mass, but it does have plenty of energy. Since energy and mass are equivalent does this mean that a photon (or more practically, a light beam) exerts a gravitational pull ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
Any process or algorithm to estimate color sensitivities or color matching function of a RGB camera? [closed]
CIE defined color matching functions (CMF) for XYZ and thus RGB colors. But of course, each camera has its own color sensitivities for visible spectrum. Is there any way to estimate this function (or ...
5
votes
2answers
264 views
How does infrared light 'erase' phosphorescence on zinc sulfide?
I found some sheets of zinc sulfide in my basement that phosphoresce green for up to 24 hours or so after exposure to bright light in the violet range or shorter. One of the first things I tried was ...
7
votes
2answers
16 views
Predicting solar storms?
Quote from BBC "A strong solar storm is expected to hit Earth shortly, and experts warn it could disrupt power grids, satellite navigation and plane routes."
How is it that we are aware of a massive ...
8
votes
5answers
912 views
Can someone explain the science behind MIT's 230% efficient LEDs?
I was reading Gizmodo the other day and I didn't quite understand the Physics behind this. Could anybody shed some light on how this effect actually works?
1
vote
1answer
104 views
Why does separating plastic from a cough drop create flashes?
I was tearing open individually-wrapped cough drops in the dark, and noticed that when I pulled apart two adhesive-joined pieces of silvery plastic film, small flashes of light were produced. It was ...
1
vote
4answers
551 views
Explanation about black color, and hence color
I'm bit confused about 'black' as a color. As per my knowledge, it is not given in visible color spectra like other colors for example red, violet etc. Also I'm confused with definition of color--does ...
2
votes
3answers
971 views
Newton's corpuscular theory
Where did Newton get the idea that light had a particle nature and not a wave nature? At those times, AFAICT there were no phenomena that showed particle nature. But wave nature is much easier to ...
4
votes
2answers
139 views
What are the lines visible between two cards held edge-to-edge?
Hold two cards (say credit cards) edge to edge, anything from a very slight
touch to about 1/3 mm separation, in front of any ordinary light
source. When I do this I see several
fine dark parallel ...
1
vote
4answers
312 views
The speed of tachyons
The other day I was wondering: When a tachyon is coming towards you faster than the speed of light, will you see it before it hits you? Then I thought of course not, since the light waves aren't ...
10
votes
6answers
4k views
What determines color — wavelength or frequency?
What determines the color of light -- is it the wavelength of the light or the frequency?
(i.e. If you put light through a medium other than air, in order to keep its color the same, which one would ...
8
votes
4answers
408 views
What longest time ever was achieved at holding light in a closed volume?
For what longest possible time it was possible to hold light in a closed volume with mirrored walls?
I would be most interested for results with empty volume but results with solid-state volume may ...
1
vote
2answers
304 views
Where is a good place to learn (classical) optics?
I need to learn basic optics for a high school academic competition. Does anyone know any good places, preferably free and online, to learn the basics of optics, like lenses, angles of incidence, ...
3
votes
1answer
568 views
How do we see different colours?
Why do different wave lengths cause electrons to behave(?) differently, causing us to see different colors?
What is happening at the quantum level which causes the colour black to absorb all of the ...
0
votes
1answer
1k views
Why are umbrellas black?
Why are umbrellas specifically in black? Of course we do have colored ones, but black is the majority. Is there any scientific reason behind it?
34
votes
1answer
3k views
Why does a window become a mirror at night?
In day, when you look in the room through the window out, you can clearly see what happens outside. At night when it's dark outside but there's light inside you can look in the window but it becomes a ...
0
votes
2answers
148 views
Identifying hue, brightness and chroma of color and reaction time
If someone knows how identify hue, brightness, and chroma of color, please let me know.
I am a PhD student at Educational Linguistics UNM.
3
votes
1answer
794 views
Purple doesn't occur in rainbow - or does it?
Usually, when asked whether the purple color exists rainbows, an answer similar to this is given:
The purple color is perceived by human eyes via the activation of both red-sensitive and ...
4
votes
5answers
931 views
How many colors exist?
How many "colors" do exist?
Our perception:
As far as I know, colors are just different frequencies of light. According to wikipedia, we can see wavelengths from about 380 nm und 740 nm. This means ...
1
vote
2answers
219 views
Light pollution calculation using camera
Is it possible to calculate light pollution values using camera (analyzing camera feed) integrated in new smartphones (8 Mpx camera) but with pretty decent accuracy? Or that is only possible with ...
3
votes
1answer
31 views
Looking for a resource that explains all colors and shapes of stars and galaxies
I've been looking at some of the astronomy pictures of the day from NASA. They all have content that is indicative of certain situations or events. Supernovas have the scattered lines look, new stars ...
2
votes
6answers
2k views
Limit of human eye flicker perception?
I am designing a LED dimmer using software-controlled Pulse Width Modulation, and want to know the minimum PWM frequency that I must reach to make that LED dimming method indistinguishable from ...
5
votes
1answer
370 views
What happens to light that falls into a black hole?
When light enters a black hole, what happens to it?
I imagine the photons will either fall into the singularity, or the light will orbit just inside the event horizon indefinately.
(Some background ...
1
vote
1answer
376 views
If photons are deflected by a strong gravitational field, then how come photons do not have mass? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Explain how (or if) a box full of photons would weigh more due to massless photons
It has been proved and showed through experiments that light can be bent by the Sun or ...
2
votes
1answer
249 views
how many times have the first photons lapped the universe?
I'm not really interested in the actual number of times, but rather an explanation of a closed Universe. How do we still measure the background radiation of the Big Bang? Those electromagnetic waves ...
1
vote
2answers
259 views
Colour of objects
Why different objects have different colour? When a white light (composed of all colour) falls on a red book, is it true that only red colour is reflected back? If no, then why it appears red. If yes, ...
0
votes
2answers
541 views
What causes light to move through a vacuum
I was looking at rockets and stuff and thought about how they move through a vacuum using newtons 3rd law, and then I started thinking of any other ways you could move through a vacuum without using ...
9
votes
4answers
2k views
What exactly is a quantum of light?
I am currently trying to learn some basic quantum mechanics and I am a bit confused. Wikipedia defines a photon as a quantum of light, which it further explains as some kind of a wave-packet.
What ...
2
votes
1answer
459 views
Visible light spectrum to color space
I need to be able to convert an arbitrary emission spectrum in the visible spectrum range (i.e. for every wavelength between 380 and 780, I have a number between 0 and 1 that represents the ...
2
votes
1answer
130 views
The range of light
It occurs to me that the empirical evidence shows that there is a point out in space where light stops coming from.
Putting aside the expansion of the universe for a second, and focusing strictly on ...
1
vote
1answer
156 views
Light filter for an experiment
I'm looking for a filter that lets through as many wavelengths as possible (from 200 to 5000 nm).
Is that even possible?
2
votes
1answer
1k views
How long does it take for radio or light waves to travel from Earth to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto?
I know it roughly takes 20 minutes from Earth to Mars, and 8 minutes from the Sun to Earth, but don't know how long for the other planets on my list.
3
votes
2answers
680 views
Can 2 beams of ultraviolet light intersect and be visible where they intersect?
Is it possible that if you have 2 ultraviolet lasers, that are invisible to the human eye, and if you aim their beams to intersect at some point, that the place of intersection will show a lower ...
1
vote
2answers
173 views
Is a white object always white?
Is a object that’s white with the lights on, still white although it looks different under a different light or in total darkness?
2
votes
1answer
102 views
Why is the shadow of earth red?
Reading this article about the forthcoming eclipse on December 10th, I noticed mention that the moon passes through the red shadow of Earth; I'd always held the impression that a shadow is universally ...
2
votes
1answer
149 views
If we were to travel through space (sci-fi style), how close to the false-color images would the galaxies we see be?
I understand that the black-and-white images you see looking through a household telescope are only like that due to the intensity of the light that reaches us, and that most of the astronomy images ...
5
votes
2answers
181 views
Does light escape when I open my blinds?
When I open my blinds, there is light enough to read a book outside while the lamp is on inside.
So when I close my blinds, does the light that otherwise will escape, stay inside and thus being ...
4
votes
2answers
1k views
What's the difference between dim and bright light?
When comparing two light sources, for example, a light bulb at 20W and a light bulb at 100W, what is it about the incoming light that makes the latter look brighter than the former? Are there ...
2
votes
3answers
271 views
What was the motivation behind suggesting the trichromatic theory of vision?
Background
In this thread, I asked whether it is true that the colors red, green and blue, through additive mixture, can make up any color. Turns out they can't.
However, when reading about the ...
5
votes
5answers
1k views
Is it (theoretically) physically possible to project an image into thin air?
Is there some law of physics that strictly prohibits the projection of 2D or 3D images into thin air (such as holograms in movies) or is a solution to achieve this still up for grabs by an eventual ...
