- Or that we cannot see all the possible light in this world?
The sun starts our days with natural light and we finish our days with manmade light. Here are a bunch of light fun facts.
Light sources can be natural or manmade.
The speed of light is exactly 299 792 km per second (when in a vacuum and not obstructed by the atmosphere.
Optics is the study of light.
Light is made up of all the colors mixed together. White light can be split up to reveal red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
A neon lamp switched on during the Great Depression continued to burn until it was discovered some 77 years later.
Light is measured by wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum includes all the different types of light and other types of waves, too.
The light that humans can see is visible light and only makes up a very small portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is the most sad of the light fun facts.
A prism is an object that can break up white light to show the different colors that it’s made up of. Scientist Isaac Newton discovered this.
The northern lights are a display of colored lights in the
sky over the north pole. They are caused by energy from the Sun interacting with gases surrounding the Earth.
Things look a certain color because it’s the only color that is reflected.
The ‘photic sneeze reflex’ occurs when you’re faced with bright light and can cause a tickle in your nose and even bring on a sneeze. It occurs due to crossed wires in the brain, according to neurologists.
Light is a beam of energy and it travels in wavelengths.
Some countries use blue streetlights at night, which has lowered cases of crime and suicide. Blue light has calming effects on humans. This is one of the best of the light fun facts.
Plants turn light from the sun into food through the process called photosynthesis.
We see rainbows because the water droplets in the air
cause the light to be split up into the colors it’s made from – just like a prism.
Traveling at the speed of light, you could travel around the Earth 7½ times every second!
In England, there is a law called the ‘right to light’. This law states that if someone has had natural light coming into their building for more than 20 years, they have a right to stop anything being built in the way and blocking the natural light coming through.
Insects and some other animals can see more light than we can, which means they can see different colors that we can’t! If only this light fun fact translated to humans as well!
Humans are bioluminescent but the light we emit is too weak for our eyes to detect it.
Refraction is when light waves bend after passing through different materials.
The Moon reflects light from the Sun, which is why we
can see it at night.
The reason you can see lightning before you can hear thunder, is because light travels faster than sound. When you “hear” thunder it’s actually the sounds of lightning hitting the earth, but delayed.
Light is needed in technology including laser beams, printers, microscopes, cameras and fiber-optic cables.
From space, you can see quite clearly the division between East and West Germany, since the different regions use different types of lightbulbs. The type of light produced is visibly different.
Sunlight can reach a depth of about 80m into the ocean!
What’s your favorite of all the light fun facts? Let me know if you want to see more articles like this in the comments!