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Young was the first to measure the wavelengths of different colors of light, in 1802. [18] The connection between the visible spectrum and color vision was explored by Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz in the early 19th century. Their theory of color vision correctly proposed that the eye uses three distinct receptors to perceive color.
The electromagnetic waves in each of these bands have different characteristics, such as how they are produced, how they interact with matter, and their practical applications. Radio waves, at the low-frequency end of the spectrum, have the lowest photon energy and the longest wavelengths—thousands of kilometers, or more.
The word spectrum was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light after passing through a prism. As scientific understanding of light advanced, it came to apply to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It thereby became a mapping of a range of magnitudes (wavelengths) to a range of qualities, which are ...
Light of different colors has slightly different refractive indices in water and therefore shows up at different positions in the rainbow. In a triangular prism, dispersion causes different colors to refract at different angles, splitting white light into a rainbow of colors. The blue color is more deviated (refracted) than the red color ...
In the physical sciences, the term spectrum was introduced first into optics by Isaac Newton in the 17th century, referring to the range of colors observed when white light was dispersed through a prism. [1] [2] Soon the term referred to a plot of light intensity or power as a function of frequency or wavelength, also known as a spectral ...
Electromagnetic waves of different frequency are called by different names since they have different sources and effects on matter. In order of increasing frequency and decreasing wavelength, the electromagnetic spectrum includes: radio waves , microwaves , infrared , visible light , ultraviolet , X-rays , and gamma rays .
The wave theory predicted that light waves could interfere with each other like sound waves (as noted around 1800 by Thomas Young). Young showed by means of a diffraction experiment that light behaved as waves. He also proposed that different colours were caused by different wavelengths of light and explained colour vision in terms of
When a pigment or ink is added, wavelengths are absorbed or "subtracted" from white light, so light of another color reaches the eye. If the light is not a pure white source (the case of nearly all forms of artificial lighting), the resulting spectrum will appear a slightly different color. Red paint, viewed under blue light, may appear black ...