The Main Physical properties of Light Analysis

Light has several physical properties, which contributes to the reason for how we perceive various colour. The various properties are as follows:

Wavelength:

The distance between two peaks of light. It is this property which determines the colour. Higher the wavelength of light indicates lower frequency. Where frequency in this context refers to the number of waves which pass through a particular point during a fixed time period. Similarly, shorter wavelength indicates higher frequency since more number of waves pass through a point during a particular time. Due to the dominance of a particular wavelength among a mixture, we perceive the light with a longer wavelength, that colour is known as Hue. We humans, tend to perceive red as the one with higher wavelength and that lies in the visible spectrum of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. As a result, red is easily visible to our eye, owing to longer wavelength. This acts as the main idea behind why red light and signals are regarded as warning signs. While red light lies in the visible spectrum, green has an intermediate wavelength; whereas blue and violet are the ones with a shorter wavelength. The electromagnetic spectrum of the light consists of all electromagnetic radiation occurring in our environment. The various waves encompassing the spectrum are gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared light, microwaves, and radio waves. Humans perceive light which falls in the range of 380 to 740 nm. And that is the visible spectrum, which is a very small distance. Certain species can perceive ultraviolet light, for example, honey bees whereas, snakes can identify infrared radiation besides visible spectrum of light. The range of wavelengths of light is as follows; when the wavelength increases from 400 to 700 nanometers, our perception of light shifts from violet through blue which has a shorter wavelength, then green, yellow, orange with medium wavelengths, and at last red with longer wavelengths.

Brightness: It refers to the physical intensity of light or the amount of energy of light. This property explains about the saturation of colour. If light consists of a mixture of several wavelengths, then less saturated the light appears to the eye. On the other hand, if light consists of very few wavelengths, then the resulting mix will be high in intensity of one wavelength, making it more saturated, thus owing to its brightness.

Amplitude:

It is the height of a wave which is calculated from the top to the bottom point of the wave. In fact, it is this amplitude which explains about the brightness of a light. Consider two waves with the same wavelength, but differing in amplitude. The wave with more amplitude tends to be more intense or bright. Which explains us about how we perceive the certain colour of objects to intense or bright in nature.