Is all light the same?

Question

Light from my computer screen, from a lightbulb, from a cigarette, from the sun - is it all the same type moving at the same speed?
I thought light was a photon, is this true for things like TV screens etc., in a way that natural light and artificial light are the same things produced in the same way?
Sorry if question is all over the place but I know what I'm trying to say - are there different forms of light?
Thanks for answering.

Answer 1

Light most definitely differs in origin by the source emitting the light. Speed-wise, light will move at 186,282 miles per second in a vacuum. It will move slightly slower through other objects, such as glass or water. As for the photon part of your question, light has been proven to be BOTH a wave AND a particle. Obviously it is easy to see how it would be a wave, but since it has also proven to be affected by gravity, it show properties of a particle.

Answer 2

The wavelength of light is different depending on the colour. white light can be split into the spectrum by passing it through a triangular piece of glass called a prism. This gave the familiar rainbow of colours. Violet light has the smallest wavelength, next is blue, then green, yellow, orange. Red has the longest wavelength of light.

There are several ways to think of light. The classical description
says light is an electro-magnetic wave. This means that it is a varying
electric and magnetic field, which spreads out or propagates from one
place to another. It is not a physical substance. The modern quantum
mechanical description says that light can also be considered to be
particles called photons. These carry energy and momentum but have no mass.
In both descriptions, the light energy is carried by a very real and
observable mechanism.
Light can act like a particle and a wave and the same time.

Answer 3

All light, (in fact all electromagnetic radiation) is essentially the same. The parameters which differ are the following:

* Wavelength
This determines the colour. Usually lots of different wavelengths combine to make up visible light. Usually only artificial sources have very narrow wavelength distributions, like lasers, LEDs etc, although some bioluminescence can have similar properties.

* Amplitude
This determines the amount of light or how bright.
In reality, the wavelength also determines how bright the light appears to be because the human eye is more sensitive to different wavelengths of light.

* Polarisation
This determines the orientation of the light wave. Natural light is usually randomly polarised meaning that the wave is operating in every direction. Light from an LCD is polarised meaning that the wave is limited to one mode of operation. Light being reflected from the surface of water also has some limited polarisation too.

I hope this helps.
Best regards.

Answer 4

If I read your question correctly, you are asking if light coming from different sources is the same. The answer is yes, there is no difference between red light from a tv screen or from a fire. If the frequency of the light is the same, the source does not make a difference in the light. Even polarized light is still light, you have just selected photons polarized in the same direction. Laser light also is plain old light, just coherently added, so the light from a ruby laser is fundamentally the same as that from a cars break light.

Answer 5

there are different forms of light as for visible light in computer screens, a lightbulb, a cigarette,and the sun each one uses a different technique to generate photons.

Answer 6

..All light travels at the same speed in a vacuum and is made of photons, the only thing that makes some light different from other light is frequency, from radio waves to gamma rays. It also accounts for different colors.

Answer 7

zzzzzz6 is right. Light is light. The speed of light is constant in any given medium. There are different wavelengths which we perceive as different colors. The source of the light makes no difference. It is still light, or more technically, electromagnetic energy within a band of frequencies that eyes can sense and that we have defined as visible light.

Answer 8

"Light", or, the way you say it, "Visible light" is only part of the electromagnetic spectrum, all the radiations that exist.
These radiation range, in frequency, from 1Hz (cycle/second) to 300EHz (HexaHertz: 300x10E18).
Light as you know it ranges from 4.569E14 Hz (Red) to 7.310E14 Hz (Violet).
It is the FREQUENCY of the radiation that defines "light", or its colour.
In this way, the light is a WAVE, no matter what source you use.
However, light radiation behave as well as particules, in this case, "photons". It is the energy of these photons that, again, define their "colour".
So, yes, ALL visible light is made of the same thing: photons.
They only differ from their frequencies (or energy).

Answer 9

All lights are not same .like sun light is a amalgamation of seven individual colours having different wave lengths.Similarly there are light emitted by hot bodies depending upon their temperature and composition. There are lights which are not visible to human eye like infra red and ultra violet series.