What is light?

Question

Hi everyone,
Since a long time the question 'What is light' is questioning me...

We all seem to know what it is. It's something that lets us see and something that warms us up... But when I ask for a definition noone can answer me...

You cannot grab light, nor really 'see' it.
Can someone help me with my everlasting question...

Answer 1

Light is a form of electromagnetic energy, like radio waves. The frequency is so high that it becomes visible.

Answer 2

Light is the absence of darkness.

;-)

Seriously, it's a photon of energy. If you wanted to "freeze" it in place and make it as large as, say, a softball, you could -kinda- picture it as a "globe" of energy that is wispy and thin at its extremeties and becoming increasingly dense with energy towards the center. Something like an immaterial "koosh ball", only squiggling and jumping all over the place much too fast for the individual strands to be seen. The thickness of the energy at any point would indicate the degree of probability that the photon is actually in that location - though you could never actually be sure where, exactly, the precise, geometric-point of a photon is. The threads are the many paths of probability the photon - could- be taking, all you'd actually be doing by "expanding" it is not making the photon any bigger, but magnifying the probability trails to a macro-world level. The photon itself will always be the size of a geometric point no matter how large you magnify its probability field. It would technically be invisible to you since it, as a single photon, _is_ what you perceive as light, and one photon like that wouldn't have the chance of actually being within your line of sight no matter where you were in the probability field. Perhaps if you could expand it to the size of the solar system and place yourself at the -exact center-, but even then, you wouldn't be too likely to see it since it would need to ping your rods and cones repeatedly.

Answer 3

Light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from radio waves to gamma rays. Electromagnetic radiation waves, as their names suggest are fluctuations of electric and magnetic fields, which can transport energy from one location to another. Visible light is not inherently different from the other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum with the exception that the human eye has evolved to detect visible waves. Electromagnetic radiation can also be described in terms of a stream of photons which are massless particles each travelling with wavelike properties at the speed of light. A photon is the smallest quantity (quantum) of energy which can be transported and it was the realization that light travelled in discrete quanta that was the origins of Quantum Theory.

It was not by accident that humans evolved to ‘see’ light. The detection of light is a very powerful tool for probing the universe around us. As light interacts with matter it can be become

altered and by studying light that has originated or interacted with matter, many of the properties of that matter can be determined. It is through the study of light that for example we can understand the composition of the stars light years away or watch the processes that occur in the living cell as they happen.

Hope to have helped you here?

Answer 4

Light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength that is visible to the eye.

The three basic properties of light (i.e., all electromagnetic radiation) are:

Intensity, or alternatively amplitude, which is related to the perception of brightness of the light.

Frequency, or alternatively wavelength, perceived by humans as the color of the light and

Polarization (angle of vibration), which is only weakly perceptible by humans under ordinary circumstances.

Answer 5

Light is electromagnetic energy that travels in the form of photons, photons can behave as waves or particles. The path of light follows the curvature of space and if it is not interrupted it will travel indefinitely.

Answer 6

Light is an electromagnetic wave. Its formed by two alternating electric and magnetic fields which are perpendicular to each other and also perpendicular to direction of motion of wave. The electric and magnetic fields are in phase with each other.

Answer 7

As everybody said is an electromagnetic wave, the difference with other electromagnetic waves is that your eyes are sensible to those frequencies, depending on the frequency you will see red, blue green etc.

Answer 8

Visible light is a form of radiation that our eyes translate into images (the light spectrum).

Answer 9

Light is electromagnetic radiation. You can see it if it interacts with some particle and is scattered in your direction and is in the visible wavelength region. You can detect light by other means too.

Answer 10

the light is the thing ur gunna go to when i sneak into ur bedroom and kill u in ur sleep....................just kidding its a thing frum the sun and stuff