PHYS 284 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Electromagnetic Spectrum, Electric Light, Evaporation
Document Summary
The nature of light is one of the most important concepts in astronomy. Since we are just beginning to venture out into the solar system, most of the information we have about the universe has come fro observing the universe through telescopes. What we are escentially doing with a telescope is capturing the light emitted from celestial objects and deriving clues about the properties of the objects. We do this by understanding the physical laws of light, we have discovered through scientific experimentation on earth. The warmth of sunlight means light is a form of energy on a warm sunny day you can feel your skin gets warm as it absorbs sunlight. Because getter warmth means greater molecular motion, the sun must be transferring its energy to the molecules in your skin. The energy that light carries is called (cid:1688)radiative energy(cid:1689) Since light, unlike an object such as a rock, flows through space, more like a stream of water.
