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The optical atmospheric window is the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that passes through the Earth's atmosphere, excluding its infrared part; [10] although, as mentioned before, the optical spectrum also includes the IR spectrum and thus the optical window could include the infrared window (8 – 14 μm), the latter is ...
Longer-wavelength radiation such as visible light is nonionizing; the photons do not have sufficient energy to ionize atoms. Throughout most of the electromagnetic spectrum, spectroscopy can be used to separate waves of different frequencies, so that the intensity of the radiation can be measured as a function of frequency or wavelength.
White light is dispersed by a glass prism into the colors of the visible spectrum. The visible spectrum is the band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called visible light (or simply light).
When a beam of light crosses the boundary between a vacuum and another medium, or between two different media, the wavelength of the light changes, but the frequency remains constant. If the beam of light is not orthogonal (or rather normal) to the boundary, the change in wavelength results in a change in the direction of the beam.
In the case of electromagnetic radiation—such as light—in free space, the phase speed is the speed of light, about 3 × 10 8 m/s. Thus the wavelength of a 100 MHz electromagnetic (radio) wave is about: 3 × 10 8 m/s divided by 10 8 Hz = 3 m. The wavelength of visible light ranges from deep red, roughly 700 nm, to violet, roughly 400 nm (for ...
The wavelength of light is then selected by the slit on the upper right corner. An optical spectrometer ( spectrophotometer , spectrograph or spectroscope ) is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum , typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. [ 1 ]
The classical example of a continuous spectrum, from which the name is derived, is the part of the spectrum of the light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen that is due to free electrons becoming bound to a hydrogen ion and emitting photons, which are smoothly spread over a wide range of wavelengths, in contrast to the discrete lines due to ...
By recording the attenuation of light for various wavelengths, an absorption spectrum can be obtained. In physics , absorption of electromagnetic radiation is how matter (typically electrons bound in atoms ) takes up a photon 's energy —and so transforms electromagnetic energy into internal energy of the absorber (for example, thermal energy ).