light - can you 'see' light?

Question

i can't work this out because if you can see light then surely the air would be full of light and so we would all be blinded and therefore not see anything?

i still don't get it - you're telling me i can see light reflected off things - but i don't see the light - i see the thing that does the reflecting - and if light is transparent then that means you can't see it - so i still need an answer - can you see light?

and to answer the 'i've made two assumptions' comment:
'i assume that the air is full of light because you can see anything anywhere-move your hand, your desk your pet dog - you can still see it - meaning light has to be everywhere otherwise there would be areas where you wouldn't see anything (blind spots) - following on from this line of thinking and agreeing that light is therefore everywhere and if we could see it then we'd be seeing the same thing everywhere (light - assuming it's the same kind of light) and therefore technically blinded to everything else (e.g. your pet dog) which you would no longer be able to see the light reflecting off because all you can see is...LIGHT. becuase i can still see your pet dog (in theory) therefore i can't see light.

Answer 1

first of all realize that Light is not tangible. Its a form of energy. (electro magnetic wave). Its not matter. So you cant say the air would be full of light.

The second part. You say "we would all be blinded", thinking that the air would be full of light.
Since the first part is now clear that the air cant be full of light (as its not matter) the second part cannot be true...

Some additional info.
Light is a form of energy. We say its transmitted like PHOTONS. These photons contain some amount of energy. Photons in the sense is pure energy & not matter, it doesnt have a weight & so...
When the light is projected on to a surface certain amount of photons are captured by the surface & the rest is reflected back. ( when white light is projected to a blue surface all photons except for the ones that have the energy level at blue are taken by the surface & the rest is released. thats why we see it as a blue surface)....

Now to the confusing part.
I guess you have some knowledge about this formula.
E = m*c^2

The einsteins equation. it states that the matter (mass) can be converted to pure energy. The opposite is also true. The energy can be converted to mass as well. (this was shown using photons :) )
But until the energy is converted to mass it doesnt have any properties of matter.

I guess its clear & solver your problem.

Cheers
Codered

Answer 2

"if you can see light then surely the air would be full of light and so we would all be blinded"

You've made two assumptions without any reason:
1. Why would the air be "full of light"?
2. Even if "full of light", why would there be so much of it that we would be blinded?

Think of sound for a moment. Sound has a more direct relationship with the air. The air itself transmits the sound. (Without air there would be no sound.) And yet the air is not "full of sound". And there isn't so much sound that we are deafened.

Light has a much smaller relationship to air ... almost none at all. Air does not transmit light. If there was no air, the light would still travel (or else we would not see the light from stars).

However, that said, there is a grain of truth to what you're saying. The atmosphere is, in a sense "full of light." As sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it is scattered by tiny particles in the atmosphere. This scatter only the long wavelengths of light (the blues) .. the medium and short wavelengths (the greens-yellows, and the orange-reds) are not scattered. So the atmosphere is "full of light" ... blue light ... coming at us from all scattered directions.

That is why the sky is blue. (This is not what you asked, but it is related to your question.)

Answer 3

Assuming that "light is everywhere"...

We would not be 'blinded' by the light around us because of a mental process called physiological suppression. It means that we only "see" the thing we focus on with our 'straight ahead vision'. Things that are positioned in our side vision are suppressed to a certain extent i.e. we can detect its presence but not tell its detail. This helps to prevent the brain from being overloaded with the amount of light or details!

The exact nature of light is not known but there are a few working principles; light ray travel in straight lines, light wave travel in waving lines, wavefronts, light energy in photons... too lengthy to talk about...

Answer 4

You only see the light that actually hits your eyes.

Imagine being a spectator at the edge of a battlefield where the air is literally full of bullets in front of you. The only ones you will personally experience ("see") are the ones that are fired right at your or ricochet off something and hit you.

Answer 5

Take a laser pointer. You can't see the beam of light at all, unless the room is full of smoke. However you can see the red spot that the beam of light land on. So much of science fiction movies that shows the beam.

Answer 6

For you to see light, you need to be looking at something that radiates or reflects light. Since the air is transparent to light, it simply passes through until i hits an object that reflects it to your eyes.

Answer 7

You see objcts by the light reflected off them. When it is totally dark, you can not see objects. When you see a beam of light it is reflected off dust particles in the air. You can not see a LASER beam until something is put in the beam to reflect the light.

Answer 8

well. it is a remarkable question, no doubt.

to understand the explanation you must first realize what "light" is.

light, is the word we use for a beam/ray or a wave of photons. photons are "patches" of energy, that are created in light sources and released in to the environment. these patches, as Plank very wisely called them, are moving in straight lines. it is impossible for them to make any other kind of movement. now, when the photons come in contact with unpassable blockings in their way (non-transparrent objects) they riccocet and shoot off in any direction (that applys only for non-smooth objects-in the phenomena of mirrors is that all of the photons are riccoceted in the same direction, giving us the idols). it is natural that some of these photons hit our eyes square in the retina. that way, the brain interprets the signals of photons you recieve and behold! the sense of sight.

now, about your question. if a bullet fired by a gun directly to your left passed right before your eyes you would not be able to see it, would you? that is because of the speed of the bullet. the human eye can capture only 24 "screenshots" of the world in every second. if an object has a speed great enough to escape this limit, it turns invisible. the same thing happens with photons. do you think it possible to see a tiny patch of energy flash before your eyes with the extraordinary speed of 300.000 kilometers per second? simply not possible. but if it comes directly at your eye, you will be able to "catch" it.

i hope that you will find my answer, shall we say, "illuminating"!

Answer 9

u can't see light ,but light brings the object in vision
then also if u wan't to see light ,look into the sun
or look the deflected light from the prism

Answer 10

No, you can't see an electromagnetic wave, but when the wave hits a mass, it illuminates light.