Astronomy 1021 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Extremely High Frequency, Electromagnetic Spectrum, Incandescent Light Bulb

• School: Western University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: Astronomy 1021
• Professor: Margaret Campbell- Brown

Document Summary

Newton showed that: the rainbow from the light-prism experiment comes from the light, meaning white light is a mix of all the colors of the rainbow. Visible light: the light our eyes can see, ranging in wavelength from about 400 to 700 nm. Electromagnetic spectrum: the complete spectrum of light, including radio waves, infrared light, visible light, x rays and gamma rays. Light itself is often called electromagnetic radiation. Light is a wave, which means that it is something that can transmit energy without carrying material along with it. The wavelength is the difference between adjacent peaks and the frequency is the number of times that the cycle of energy occurs. Frequency in relation to light means counting each time the electrons bobbed up in down, while the wavelength would be the distance between the electrons. Light is an electromagnetic wave, because it can interact with both electrically charged particles and magnetic fields.