Is light the absence of darkness or is darkness the absence of light?

Question

Explain your rationale please.

Answer 1

Moreso the latter - darkness can in general described as absence of light (in varying degrees).

Be very wary of those who state otherwise ;-)

"Darkness is the perceived absence of light. Contrary to popular belief, pure or total darkness does not exist, because some small amount of light, in the form of radiation, permeates every corner of the universe, even if at times undetectable by the human eye. Thus darkness is best described as "lesser amounts of light," rather than as "the absence of light." True darkness is only theoretically possible in conditions of absolute zero. [1] Earlier in history, it was sometimes viewed as a substance in its own right, and appears in this form in some fantasy literature. Another name for darkness, in this context, is "shadow." "

Answer 2

Darkness and light are "perceived" physiological responses. Thus as light intensity decreases, the human eye responds by dilation of the iris and the human being
psychologically perceives this as decreased light intensity.

When light intensity is very low and the human eye no longer responds to this level of illumination, the human being perceives this psychologically as "darkness".

Thus darkness is the absence of light, as defined by the conditions described in the above discussion.

Remember, that even in the presence of light, a visually-impaired individual may still detect ( and perceive) darkness.

Answer 3

Darkness is the absense of light. This is not revolutionary. Go check out some basic physics, you can read about photons which are often in the visible light wavelength. Nobody is positing a particle of darkness.

Also I disagree with the other answerer - seems like its from Wikipedia - about there not being total darkness. You can find pitch black in lots of caves all over the world. Just because there may be electromagnetic radiation in there to a degree - conceivably more than outside with radioactive minerals, but they wouldn't be in the form of visible light.

Answer 4

Darkness is the absence of light. With no light source, it is dark. There is no such thing as a "dark source". You can't put a "dark bulb" outside in the daytime and darken the area around it, but you can but a light bulb outside at night and brighten the area around it.

Answer 5

Darkness is a relative term indicating degrees of lumens. It is near impossible to obtain absolute darkness except perhaps in a blackhole but even there photons are present. Darkness is not unlike Cold they are references to something that technically do not exist.