Visible spectrum

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Infinite Construction - STEAM
Laser beams with visible spectrum

The visible spectrum is the portion 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. A typical human eye will respond to wavelengths from about 380 to 740 nanometers.[1] In terms of frequency, this corresponds to a band in the vicinity of 405–790 THz.

The spectrum does not contain all the colors that the human visual system can distinguish. Unsaturated colors such as pink, or purple variations like magenta, for example, are absent because they can only be made from a mix of multiple wavelengths. Colors containing only one wavelength are also called pure colors or spectral colors.

Visible wavelengths pass largely unattenuated through the Earth's atmosphere via the "optical window" region of the electromagnetic spectrum. An example of this phenomenon is when clean air scatters blue light more than red light, and so the midday sky appears blue (apart from the area around the sun which appears white because the light is not scattered as much). The optical window is also referred to as the "visible window" because it overlaps the human visible response spectrum. The near infrared (NIR) window lies just out of the human vision, as well as the medium wavelength infrared (MWIR) window, and the long wavelength or far infrared (LWIR or FIR) window, although other animals may experience them.





Newton's observation of prismatic colors (David Brewster 1855)

Newton originally divided the spectrum into six named colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. He later added indigo as the seventh color since he believed that seven was a perfect number as derived from the ancient Greek sophists, of there being a connection between the colors, the musical notes, the known objects in the solar system, and the days of the week.[3] The human eye is relatively insensitive to indigo's frequencies, and some people who have otherwise-good vision cannot distinguish indigo from blue and violet. For this reason, some later commentators, including Isaac Asimov,[4] have suggested that indigo should not be regarded as a color in its own right but merely as a shade of blue or violet. Evidence indicates that what Newton meant by "indigo" and "blue" does not correspond to the modern meanings of those color words. Comparing Newton's observation of prismatic colors to a color image of the visible light spectrum shows that "indigo" corresponds to what is today called blue, whereas his "blue" corresponds to cyan.[5][6][7]


In the early 19th century, the concept of the visible spectrum became more definite, as light outside the visible range was discovered and characterized by William Herschel (infrared) and Johann Wilhelm Ritter (ultraviolet), Thomas Young, Thomas Johann Seebeck, and others.[8] Young was the first to measure the wavelengths of different colors of light, in 1802.[9]


Color perception across species

Many species can see light within frequencies outside the human "visible spectrum". Bees and many other insects can detect ultraviolet light, which helps them find nectar in flowers. Plant species that depend on insect pollination may owe reproductive success to their appearance in ultraviolet light rather than how colorful they appear to humans. Birds, too, can see into the ultraviolet (300–400 nm), and some have sex-dependent markings on their plumage that are visible only in the ultraviolet range.[10][11] Many animals that can see into the ultraviolet range cannot see red light or any other reddish wavelengths. Bees' visible spectrum ends at about 590 nm, just before the orange wavelengths start.[12] Birds can see some red wavelengths, although not as far into the light spectrum as humans.[13] The popular belief that the common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infrared and ultraviolet light[14] is incorrect, because goldfish cannot see infrared light.[15]

Most mammals are dichromatic, and dogs and horses are often thought to be color blind. They have been shown to be sensitive to colors, though not as many as humans.[16] Some snakes can "see"[17] radiant heat at wavelengths between 5 and 30 μm to a degree of accuracy such that a blind rattlesnake can target vulnerable body parts of the prey at which it strikes,[18] and other snakes with the organ may detect warm bodies from a meter away.[19] It may also be used in thermoregulation and predator detection.[20][21] (See Infrared sensing in snakes)

Spectral colors

sRGB rendering of the spectrum of visible light
Color Wavelength Frequency Photon energy
Violet 380–450 nm 680–790 THz 2.95–3.10 eV
Blue 450–485 nm 620–680 THz 2.64–2.75 eV
Cyan 485–500 nm 600–620 THz 2.48–2.52 eV
Green 500–565 nm 530–600 THz 2.25–2.34 eV
Yellow 565–590 nm 510–530 THz 2.10–2.17 eV
Orange 590–625 nm 480–510 THz 2.00–2.10 eV
Red 625–740 nm 405–480 THz 1.65–2.00 eV

Colors that can be produced by visible light of a narrow band of wavelengths (monochromatic light) are called pure spectral colors. The various color ranges indicated in the illustration are an approximation: The spectrum is continuous, with no clear boundaries between one color and the next.[22]

Color display spectrum

Approximation of spectral colors on a display results in somewhat distorted chromaticity
A rendering of the visible spectrum on a gray background produces non-spectral mixtures of pure spectrum with gray, which fit into the sRGB color space.



Earth's atmosphere partially or totally blocks some wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, but in visible light it is mostly transparent



See also


  1. ^ Starr, Cecie (2005). Biology: Concepts and Applications. Thomson Brooks/Cole. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-534-46226-0.
  2. ^ Coffey, Peter (1912). The Science of Logic: An Inquiry Into the Principles of Accurate Thought. Longmans. p. 185. roger bacon prism.
  3. ^ Isacoff, Stuart (16 January 2009). Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-307-56051-3. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  4. ^ Asimov, Isaac (1975). Eyes on the universe : a history of the telescope. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-395-20716-1.
  5. ^ Evans, Ralph M. (1974). The perception of color (null ed.). New York: Wiley-Interscience. ISBN 978-0-471-24785-2.
  6. ^ McLaren, K. (March 2007). "Newton's indigo". Color Research & Application. 10 (4): 225–229. doi:10.1002/col.5080100411.
  7. ^ Waldman, Gary (2002). Introduction to light : the physics of light, vision, and color (Dover ed.). Mineola: Dover Publications. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-486-42118-6.
  8. ^ Mary Jo Nye (editor) (2003). The Cambridge History of Science: The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences. 5. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-521-57199-9.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  9. ^ John C. D. Brand (1995). Lines of light: the sources of dispersive spectroscopy, 1800–1930. CRC Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN 978-2-88449-163-1.
  10. ^ Cuthill, Innes C (1997). "Ultraviolet vision in birds". In Peter J.B. Slater (ed.). Advances in the Study of Behavior. 29. Oxford, England: Academic Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-12-004529-7.
  11. ^ Jamieson, Barrie G. M. (2007). Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Birds. Charlottesville VA: University of Virginia. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-57808-386-2.
  12. ^ Skorupski, Peter; Chittka, Lars (10 August 2010). "Photoreceptor Spectral Sensitivity in the Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apidae)". PLoS ONE. 5 (8): e12049. Bibcode:2010PLoSO...512049S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012049. PMC 2919406. PMID 20711523.
  13. ^ Varela, F. J.; Palacios, A. G.; Goldsmith T. M. (1993) "Color vision of birds", pp. 77–94 in Vision, Brain, and Behavior in Birds, eds. Zeigler, Harris Philip and Bischof, Hans-Joachim. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262240369
  14. ^ "True or False? "The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light."". Skeptive. 2013. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  15. ^ Neumeyer, Christa (2012). "Chapter 2: Color Vision in Goldfish and Other Vertebrates". In Lazareva, Olga; Shimizu, Toru; Wasserman, Edward (eds.). How Animals See the World: Comparative Behavior, Biology, and Evolution of Vision. Oxford Scholarship Online. ISBN 978-0-19-533465-4.
  16. ^ Kasparson, A. A; Badridze, J; Maximov, V. V (2013). "Colour cues proved to be more informative for dogs than brightness". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 280 (1766): 20131356. doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.1356. PMC 3730601. PMID 23864600.
  17. ^ Newman, EA; Hartline, PH (1981). "Integration of visual and infrared information in bimodal neurons in the rattlesnake optic tectum". Science. 213 (4509): 789–91. Bibcode:1981Sci...213..789N. doi:10.1126/science.7256281. PMC 2693128. PMID 7256281.
  18. ^ Kardong, KV; Mackessy, SP (1991). "The strike behavior of a congenitally blind rattlesnake". Journal of Herpetology. 25 (2): 208–211. doi:10.2307/1564650. JSTOR 1564650.
  19. ^ Fang, Janet (14 March 2010). "Snake infrared detection unravelled". Nature News. doi:10.1038/news.2010.122.
  20. ^ Krochmal, Aaron R.; George S. Bakken; Travis J. LaDuc (15 November 2004). "Heat in evolution's kitchen: evolutionary perspectives on the functions and origin of the facial pit of pitvipers (Viperidae: Crotalinae)". Journal of Experimental Biology. 207 (Pt 24): 4231–4238. doi:10.1242/jeb.01278. PMID 15531644.
  21. ^ Greene HW. (1992). "The ecological and behavioral context for pitviper evolution", in Campbell JA, Brodie ED Jr. Biology of the Pitvipers. Texas: Selva. ISBN 0-9630537-0-1.
  22. ^ Bruno, Thomas J. and Svoronos, Paris D. N. (2005). CRC Handbook of Fundamental Spectroscopic Correlation Charts. CRC Press. ISBN 9781420037685
  23. ^ "Reproducing Visible Spectra". Retrieved 2011-02-09.