If our eyes had more colour receptors, would we be able to see things like sound waves and ultraviolet?

Question

ok, but still if we had more colour receptors, would we be able to see different things we couldn't before?

Answer 1

No.

It is not a matter of the *number* of color receptors, but the wavelengths to which they are sensitive. If our color receptors were tuned to shorter wavelengths, then we might see more into the ultraviolet. But Uncle Al is correct ... there is also the fact that our cornea and lens specifically filter out ultraviolet as this can damage the retina (as UV is higher energy).

But as far as seeing sound waves ... no. Sound waves are vibrations in the air, not electromagnetic waves (which is why light travels quite nicely through the vacuum of space, but sound is non-existent) ... so no amount or change in the receptors in our eyes can cause us to see sound waves.

Answer 2

Eh, dude. Sound is not electromagnetic radiation and could never be detected by the systems of the eye. Sound waves are compression waves (can only exist in matter) and are already "seen" by the ear. A longer cochlea would help us hear higher and lower tones - like dogs etc.

Answer 3

I dont think its about having more...its just about having colour receptors that are sensitive to the different frequencies and wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum...at the moment, we are only sensitive to visible light.

Answer 4

The lens of your eye is opaque to shorter than 400 nm photons. As you age its cutoff moves deeper into the visible.

Sound has no photchemistry to act upon rhodopsin recepetors, What is the wavelength of sound, what is the size of your proposed recepetor, what is the diameter of an eye?

Answer 5

Actually, any light we could see would be visible light . That is the defination of the term "visible light".

Answer 6

I don't know but i'm cool so i should get the best answer.