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So heat is the random movement of molecules, and infrared light is part of the electromagnetic field. So why do scientist always refer to heat as infrared as if it is one in the same thing. Also if heat is capable of generating infrared somehow, then why not other wavelengths?

2007-03-12 16:58:35 · 3 answers · asked by justin l 5 in Science & Mathematics Physics

3 answers

This is from Wikipedia. It says it all. Basically, there is some misconceptions about infrared. Read up and you will get some new insight.

Infrared radiation is popularly known as "heat" or sometimes "heat radiation," since many people attribute all radiant heating to infrared light. This is a widespread misconception, since light and electromagnetic waves of any frequency will heat surfaces that absorb them. Infrared light from the Sun only accounts for 50% of the heating of the Earth, the rest being caused by visible light.[citation needed] Visible light or ultraviolet-emitting lasers can char paper and incandescently hot objects emit visible radiation. It is true that objects at room temperature will emit radiation mostly concentrated in the 8–12 micron band, but this is not distinct from the emission of visible light by incandescent objects and ultraviolet by even hotter objects (see black body and Wien's displacement law).[6]

Heat is energy in transient form that flows due to temperature difference. Unlike heat transmitted by thermal conduction or thermal convection, radiation can propagate through a vacuum.

2007-03-12 17:16:49 · answer #1 · answered by eric l 6 · 0 0

warmth is the completed power in an merchandise yet temperature is the universal power for each particle in that merchandise. to describe with an occasion: think of a lecture room with 20 pupils, each and each has 10 greenbacks. warmth represents the completed money finished lecture room have, in our case 2 hundred greenbacks. Temperature represents the universal volume of money, or money very own via each and each man or woman it somewhat is 10 greenbacks. An iceberg has extra warmth(power) than a cup of boiling water, because of the fact there are extra debris in an iceberg yet a cup of boiling water has greater temperature because of the fact temp = finished warmth/ sort of debris.

2016-12-19 04:14:48 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

As the temperature increases, the wavelength decreases, that is how metal becomes red hot and white hot. In photography, different kinds of light have different color temperatures, measured in thousands of degrees Kelvin. Different elements absorb light at different wavelengths, that is how a spectrograph works.

2007-03-12 17:15:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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