If Light Is Invisible How Can We See Things

Light is known as the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Do you think you can see light? I'm going to show you that you can't see light. 

You can see the sunlight, the traffic lights, the car lights, and the business lights downtown. At night you see the moon and the stars. 

But the reality is that light is invisible. Wait a minute, then how can we see things?

Light is known as the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation

Sometimes there's fog or dust in the air, and you think that you can see the light. But what you see is the fog, dust, or clouds illuminated by light. 

The Two Common Types of Light

If humanity could see light, the universe would be opaque and invisible.

You can see sunlight or the light illuminating the moon. All light comes from a source, and light "reflects" off things. 

But light itself is invisible. How do we see the Sun and moon if light is invisible? I'm glad you asked.

The Invisible Source of Light

Allow me to give you a little background story about light. The Big Bang event arrived with photon radiation (Let there be light). 

But all the light turned into a plasma of electrons, and the universe went into darkness. 

After the energy cooled down, quarks and gluons became hydrogen ions/atoms. 

The force of gravity emerged from matter, and when enough mass was available, gravity ignited a nuclear fission reaction to create stars. 

In the Big Bang, photons made electrons; now, electrons make photons. 

The constant motion inside matter has always existed. Every physical thing has energy vibrating at light speed. 

Your body contains atoms and electrons that are moving and vibrating at the speed of light. However, our eyes can't see the vibrations or the invisible source of light.

People and most scientists don't realize that you can't see light or a source of light. 

I mean, you can see the light coming from a source if you look directly at the source, but you can't see the source itself. That's confusing, isn't it? Let me explain. 

When you look at a source of light, you see the light coming and radiating directly into your eyes. Light is invisible, but you see the light coming from the source. 

There is some confusion with the physics involved.

For example, if you look at the Sun, you see sunlight coming from the Sun, but you can't see the source of the light in the Sun itself. 

You see the light coming from your room light, but you don't see the light coming from the inside of the light bulb. 

The newer light bulbs use light-emitting diodes or LEDs. Inside the LEDs, electrons are releasing photons of light. 

You don't see the energy happening inside; all you see is the light coming out of the light bulb (out of the source). 

The same thing, when you look towards the Sun, you see sunlight, but you don't see the Sun (the source).

The key takeaway is that light is invisible, you can see the light coming out of a source such as a star, but you can't see the star (source) itself. 

The light that is made inside the source and the light from the source is invisible. 

But if you look at the source, you see the light coming directly into your eyes. You see the sunlight coming from the Sun, but you don't see the Sun. 

A photo of the sunlight isn't an image of the Sun. You need special equipment to get photos of the Sun's surface.

The Light That You See

If light is invisible, how do we see things? 

Well, you see things, but you don't see light. Let me explain. You see the light coming from objects, but the light is invisible. 

You see objects, but not light. 

Light from a source lands on an object and its electrons.  

Then electrons gain extra energy, and immediately they emit photons while going back to their normal state. 

The photons hit your eyes, and your brain translates them into an image of the object. The light that you see are photons emitted by the electrons in the object. 

The light gives your brain an image and the color of the object. It's not the same light that comes from the source of light. 

The image that you see is of the environment, so you don't see the light. You see your environment. 

But a light source is different. Light isn’t landing on the source; light comes from the source. 

You see the light, not the source of the light. You see the sunlight, not the Sun, the light bulb, not the LEDs, the starlight, not the star, and the bullet, not the gun. 

A gun? More on that later.

A chemical reaction can cause light, and light from a wood-burning campfire is alluringly comforting. 

When you are far away, you can see the light but not the source of the light. As you go closer, you see the light is from a fire. 

When you are beside the fire, you can feel the heat (infrared light) and see the burning wood. 

The chemical reaction of carbon and oxygen in a fire generates a lot of heat which sustains the fire. 

When there is enough heat, the carbon atoms' electrons (and atoms of other material) emit light. 

The "heat produces light," and the effect is called incandescence. 

But the light still comes from electrons as they gain energy and then emit photons. 

When you are close, you see the light coming from the fire into your eyes, although you don't see the electrons creating the light.

The Motion of Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation, and all e/m radiation travels at the speed of light.

The speed of light and the speed of an electron's orbital motion are the same. How else could the electron emit light that travels at the speed of light?

Scientists use the speed of light to measure distances. If a distance is very far away, the measurement is in light-years (the distance light travels in one year). 

A popular saying in the media is that the light we see from the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, shows us what the star looked like about five years ago. 

Sunlight takes 8 minutes to reach us. Does that mean we see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago?

Consider that you don't see the source (the star or Sun) that emitted the light. You see the light coming from the star or the Sun into your eyes now.

You are in your present moment experiencing the motion around you. 

Time exists on a clock or in the measurement of motion, and motion happens at the speed of light, c=3x10^8 m/sec.

It doesn't matter how long it takes light to reach you. The reality is that you experience everything in the present moment. 

You don't see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago because you don't see the Sun; you see the sunlight or the starlight.

Here is a non-relativistic example in real motion to describe your present moment using time. 

 Imagine fighting in a war, and a sniper from an unseen location shoots at you. 

If the bullet hits you in the eye, you don't see the bullet moving or when it starts to travel to your eye. The only thing you experience is what happens in the present moment. 

If you could see into the past, you would see the bullet coming out of the gun, and you would move to avoid the bullet. 

If you could see the past, you would see the sunlight as it leaves the Sun or a star. But that's not the reality. 

You can only see what enters your eyes in the present moment. You see the bullet, not the gun, and you see the sunlight, not the Sun. 

You tend to think that the Sun is the same as sunlight. Instead, sunlight is light coming from the Sun.

The important thing is to remind yourself that you are in your present moment and not traveling in time or time-traveling. 

Images of Stars and Bullets

You and I have seen the amazing and colorful images of stars and galaxies. An image of these objects comes from light that leaves a source, but the light isn't the source. 

You see,  the bullet isn't the gun, and the sunlight isn't the Sun. This phenomenon is a common falsehood in the media.

A force creates light from electrons, and we use clocks to measure how fast things move.

But scientists see the vast universe at the present moment. 

They don't see what a star or a galaxy looked like five years or a million years ago. 

They see the light now that left the star or galaxy long ago. The light isn't an image of the source any more than the bullet is an image of the gun. 

The stars and galaxies they see aren't at the same location, and they might not exist anymore. 

I suggest that the light that enters our eyes lets us see the environment. 

You see the light "reflected" from the table and the apple, as a table and an apple, but you don't see the light. 

A light source isn't "reflected" light, so you see the light coming from the source, but you can't see the source when the distances are far away. 

The color and energy of the light have some information about the light source, but it's not an image of the source. 

Sunlight isn't an image of the sun, and a bullet has some information about the gun, but it's not an image of the gun.

I find it interesting how often we make mistakes by trusting what we see with our eyes. The deeper reality is that we have a mind that is letting us make mistakes. 

Don't try to put the blame on me, I'm just showing you that what we think about reality, isn't the reality. 

The Earth isn't flat, the universe isn't flat, the Sun doesn't orbit the Earth, things are not as they seem.

Thanks for reading another truth about our universe.

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Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and look forward to the Christmas holidays, be well, see you next week.