FORWARD
13 May
If this was one of the 'How To' condensed booklets, that are supposed to take complicated or bulky literary material and dumb it down to simplistic language, it would best be titled "IGNORANCE FOR DUMMIES!" And please, bear with my ramblings on something that creeps into my head periodically. Tormenting me at never finding a way to suitably (perhaps not able to be dumbed down to my pathetic level) understand better and move forward to other fascinating subjects; well, to me anyway.
Recently, incredible images from the new telescope that replaced the Hubble were released. There was also commentary that these images of other galaxies and stars that we see are light that started its apparent never-ending journey 4.5 billion years ago. As you view the images, the brilliance is still vivid.
When I asked my phone, "what is light?" It responded with "the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible." That left me wanting. Another response was, "Light is electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation occurs over an extremely wide range of wavelengths, from gamma rays with wavelengths less than about 1 x 10-11 meters measured in meters." Well, that explains it. Let's further discuss "light' a bit later.
REGRESS
20 May
So, how does one regress this well photographed and documented fact back 4.5 billion years ago to understand in some way how it is possible? I concede I will never grasp how such energy can create stars, and stars collect to become galaxies or the reported unimaginable pull of gravity in a black hole that can swallow up stars and galaxies.
At any rate, the stars and galaxies, like our middling-sized star the sun, are energized in a way that produces light. I am glad it is not from LEDs, we need the warmth.
And yes, it is one very intense projection of light at the source, but how does it travel gazillions of miles through space for 4.5 billion years and energize the photoreceptors on the latest and greatest telescope, and still appear as if it were just created.
SIDEWAYS
27 May
When created light projects in all directions; front, back, and sideways. Giving up on attempting to grasp an understanding of light on a universal scale, let's dumb it down to an empty room. No doors. No windows. It is black. No light. Now, let's put a lamp in the center of the room with only a twenty-five-watt bulb in it so that we don't blind ourselves when we turn it on.
Light!! Electricity has traveled through the cord into the lightbulb and caused the thin filament to heat up. This energy from the heated filament glows (evidently creating electromagnetic rays) and allows us to see the room with no doors and no windows. The rays themselves are outside of the visible spectrum. You can not see the light ray as it travels from the bulb. But, upon hitting the wall, the light reflected back is in the visible spectrum and the eye can ascertain that 'yep, there's a wall'.
I can not wrap my head around the fact that this thing (electromagnetic radiation) is being continually created by this heated filament. I perceive it as a constant stream rather than a segment like a frame on a movie film. Or maybe it is segmented but is created at such a rapid rate it is indistinguishable. Regardless, if I put myself in this room, I can see.
If I put my back to the lamp, I can see my shadow on the wall. Light is running into me and cannot get to the wall behind me. I do not feel the light hitting me. It is not like a breeze. I wonder why this blocked and absorbed light does not build up as it continually slams into me. It has been created at the filament, traveled through space, and hit me then .... what? If I weren't there, would it travel on until it did hit something? If nothing got in its way, would the electromagnetic ray travel continually for 4.5 billion years? Or does it, but there are no receptors capable of detecting that it does?
OVERLAY
03 Jun
Now let's overlay this thought with the fact that light and electromagnetic radiation is not just a single layer. When some genius decided to shine light through a prism, it was discovered that it can be broken down into segments. And these segments are known to us as colors because our eyes receive them differently.
For many years, the images on televisions were created with only three segments, red, blue, and green. The most recent computers proudly announce that they have thousands of tints of color.
As I look across the room and see a beige wall staring back at me, it is hard to conceive that I am looking through an infinite number of colors. I only see beige reflected. All the other possibilities of colors are absorbed, leaving only this one reflected.
I can only guess that this is universally true from the low level of the twenty-five-watt lightbulb to the intense light from a star.
FARM
10 Jun
It must have something to do with the wavelength. But different lights do different things. I could stand in front of an LED (light emitting diode) forever and would not get what we call a sunburn. I can also touch the glass containing the diode and find that it would be cool and not hot like the twenty-five-watt incandescent bulb in the lamp. There is black light that reflects off certain fabrics and paints to make them glow while leaving other things not reflecting anything and appearing black.
Plant a kernel of corn in a dark room with only an LED light and it will not grow like the corn planted on the farm in sunlight. The fact that sunlight stimulates plants readily evident in every vegetable section of any food market. And that it is necessary and beneficial to even us, is reported by people who live in extreme northern or southern areas with very long winter nights. They resort to sitting under sunlamps that produce the same type of light so that they do not fall into depression.
I present these thoughts to you not because I have any answers. But because I find them curious. And one day, I hope to move up from Dummy Level to only mildly ignorant.
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WEEKEND WRITE IN PROMPTS
HumorWeekly submissions for the prompts for Weekend Write In.
