If the answer is YES, a related follow-up question: if each visible color of the spectrum were to measure a centimeter in width, how far would I have to move the sensor from the red to detect the change from infrared to microwave, then to radio?

In the knowledge that Sir William Herschel discovered infrared by repeating Newton’s experiment, but with a thermometer to measure the temperature of each component of the spectrum, and after placing the thermometer a bit to the side of the red light, in darkness, noticed quite by accident that the device would still register heat, therefore an invisible yet very real component of light was there, warming the thermometer.

  • threelonmusketeersEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    Green has the largest spectrum among the colors of the visible spectrum with a difference from shortest to longest wavelength at about 85 nm. If this were assigned a length of 1 cm, you would have to slide 2.1 cm down to enter infrared territory

    I think this is incorrect. The angle subtended by a given portion of the spectrum is not linearly correlated with the wavelength. The angle is close to zero for long wavelengths, and rises sharply for very short wavelengths.

    • protist@mander.xyzEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      This has nothing to do with the refraction portion of what OP asked, I’m answering the second question by arbitrarily assigning a length of one cm to one color’s range of the visible spectrum and then applying that arbitrary measure to the rest of the spectrum.