Light waves, visible and invisible

Each kind of light has a unique wavelength, but human eyes can only perceive a tiny slice of the full spectrum -- the very narrow range from red to violet. Microwaves, radio waves, x-rays and more are hiding, invisible, just beyond our perception. Here is a closer look at the waves we can't see.
Animated by Pew36 Animation Studios.

[@heidismith9839]

The whole time I was watching this, I could only focus on how abusive these people are being towards this girl. 0:13 Glad she isn't a guy 0:57 she was definitely set up 1:06 they made her believe that there was actual fishing wire on that rod. 1:21 thats just mean. 1:41 SOUP CANS HURT! and is that wine? 2:24 they definitely spiked her drink... 3:47 VR gone wrong 4:00 they stranded her in the desert and tried to drop things on her head. 4:44 KZbin Rewind TIME 2019! 5:30 her reminiscing the time before she got captured by TED-Ed...she was told that she is going to be beheaded the following day. Can we get some F's in the chat? R.I.P wooden lady...

[@mr.fishstick_yt9955]

heidi smith thanks for the laughs

[@heidismith9839]

@@mr.fishstick_yt9955 You're Welcome!!! :P

[@jeremybutt9779]

true

[@ki7flex915]

im deaaadddd

[@elgordo6820]

F

[@jeremybutt9779]

who else had to watch this during Covid-19

[@mrpiggyg808]

yessir

[@diegodelamacorra8901]

Me

[@hannahdimatatac3760]

Me cuz online classes

[@nathangabriels.rabeje8321]

Meee

[@clairexia1183]

Dude yes -

[@SL-dn6rn]

I'm only here because our professor in physical science linked us this video for an essay assignment

[@noornedal4574]

S L Hahahahahahahahaha

[@mushroomz3310]

Same

[@jeremybutt9779]

same

[@kendallireland6825]

*sigh* Same here

[@JoysCharms]

same

[@nafechowdhury8277]

2:44 what my friends think i see without glasses

[@Sweetitly]

Thanks to the narrator who explained how we are perceived colors as light waves--it is stunning that human eyes are designed to decode those visible light wave and send it to the brain to recognize as a distinctive color.

[@Jclownwalk]

Good acid that she's on

[@averystark7772]

KUNDALINI I know right! I was thinking the same thing

[@lamar6941]

goshh, that animation will hunt the rest of my life. i wont be able to sleep. welp. :((

[@chadandjill2004]

SAME HERE

[@inquisitivewonderer3908]

0:24 I gasped, I thought the bowling ball was going to fall off.

[@lolerishype]

Oh it did, only it didn't show

[@cortwill4085]

Ya! me too. I almost threw my phone!

[@sikhswim]

This is the best explanation of light I've ever seen!

[@sope1169]

0:09 Apple Stem: Am I a joke to you?

[@aaaa-lw2kz]

lmao did anyone else come here becase their teacher needed them to watch this for an assignment for school

[@flamingaish]

Yeah

[@TheRealMake-Make]

I loved the section of precalculus that focused on frequencies, amplitudes, electromagnetism…Very cool stuff.

[@jasminslone3844]

This was explained very well. Thank You.

[@lamar6941]

The animation is creepy. dammit, im gonna get nightmares. ( 0:34 )

[@virendrakhanzode1319]

I swear to goodness this geometrical figure is hilarious for some reason and I don’t know why

[@skypixel5466]

5:26 ...she left the electricity on...

[@Sweetitly]

I knew about the idea of this brilliant KZbin clip, but perceiving of different colors which were mentioned on this clip, was very important!

[@Hammadisteachingchemistry]

Still in awe how perfect this video is

[@0TylerDurden0]

This is amazing. I just learned today that there are colors our cones or color receptors cannot see - they're called Forbidden Colors! Colors we cannot see. Colors we haven't named --- Colors we haven't and probably will never discover. Think about it.

[@erasmusso]

If an extraterrestrial, who could see the whole spectrum of light, compared his vision to ours, he'd say we're almost blind :/

[@zanescheepers2084]

Actually, colors only exist in our minds. There are no colors we can't see, only wavelengths of light our eyes can't detect.

[@mrpiggyg808]

ok boomer

[@bitebibo]

i like how u teach us to remember the energy of light. this is sound very easy for me.

[@YonatanAlem]

Light can be powered by thermo-nuclear fusion like we see in stars, however their are other ways to power light like nuclear fission, chemical molecular reaction, mass colliding with other forms of mass, etc., etc. Light particles/waves can move so fast because they have almost no mass, making it relatively easy for those waves/particles to move at the speed of light.

[@Meximagician]

They simply use a color code to shift the light back into the visible spectrum. You've probably seen this in weather maps on the news, that's just radio waves which are then given a color code. The same thing can be used for infrared (IR) or Thermographic cameras to see heat.

[@ohshitakimushroom]

Loved the animation!

[@ratttazelee7940]

Very educational, memorable and HILARIOUS. Thanks animators. It'd been great to see the stuff that didn't make the final cut.

[@ThanyaC]

Very informative helps understanding the wavy nature of light and how it can be put to use:) nice animation

[@imagineatoms]

the energy comes from various places. sometimes it's an electron jumping between orbits with the difference in energy being released as light. So if one orbit requires 3x energy to be in and then the electron drops to an orbit that requires only 1x energy, light with energy 2x is released. And it moves so fast because it is massless and everything that is massless moves at the same rate (popularly called the speed of light)

[@CultureIsKey]

Shoutout to the James Webb Space Telescope. The fact this video is 9 years old but still here to be pushed back into the KZbin algorithm, might we well. Let’s make more telescopes! 😄

[@jacquelinejoffe6771]

Please can you do one on nanometers I love your teaching it helps me with my work !

[@sudiptahalder8634]

very great videos i always keep searching for these types of videos ... CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO ON EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF RELATIVITY......????

[@giannacatimbang1756]

Thr animation of this is haunting me now-

[@myjourneytotheendofunivers]

The question i asked was why we can't see object smaller than wavelength of light ? And youtube recommend this video ...We think we know so much because of videos like these just giving pseudo satisfaction.

[@KevNev]

2:23 what did she have? Drugs? Mushrooms?

[@chadandjill2004]

im gonna bet both but combined so like magic shrooms

[@KevNev]

@@chadandjill2004 wow I nearly forgot about this drug related video

[@lolerishype]

223

[@cr-lc8fg]

theres a lot of soup on that boat

[@lolerishype]

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[@princesinggh]

One of the best video in terms of description..❤❤😙

[@abrar.shahriar]

best explanation indeed. Thank you soo much

[@bellagonna7825]

why did that have to happen? look closely 1:23

[@shashwatsingh1626]

damn! XD

[@ellenmafileo4374]

i didn't even realise that. bahaha

[@lolerishype]

dam thats satify

[@reubenlhouvum2086]

Amazing.. i learnt something new in here

[@wisteriablossom2730]

W to my science teacher for giving us a ted ed video as homework

[@SaiyaraLBS]

Beautiful animations!

[@user-pn6yn9pc9y]

Thank You for sharing this video, very insightful ✌️

[@kizurain167]

whn the light hits our eye, the relative amount of energy each cone of the retina measures, signals our brain to perceive colors.

[@thecanman3833]

me after eating my older brothers special brownies: 2:24

[@Paulholzherr]

light waves are usually shown as being vertical like this ~~~ or vvvvv I suppose that in reality light waves are more complicated than this. They must overlap and coincide and meld and mix and interfere.

[@SuperNumber420]

that is true. also, when we see colors, we are very rarely seeing one color. other than pure red, green and blue (i believe those are the three...), whenever we see a color, it is multiple wave lengths of different colors. they are put together and viewed as one color by our brain. pink, yellow, orange, magenta, they are all just different ratios of the red green and blue wavelengths that our visual system translates into one smooth color. it gets much more complex than what this video (or i) describes.

[@geancarloestrada152]

Not green, yellow

[@kizurain167]

the energy of light in our eyes tells is how it will interact with matter

[@sneedfeedandseed2410]

my teacher used this during a lecture. this is a good video.

[@alistairkillick2088]

Very good & witty explanation. I want to add one thought: Walkowicz calls radiation "kinds of light"; I'd like a quick clarification - "we say x-rays, microwaves, light, etc. but they are waves, so we'll call it 'kinds of light' for this talk".

[@jamesbuckley4605]

awesome, small detail in the rainbow shot when there is a double rainbow the "inner" rainbow had is colors reversed

[@supahsid7608]

That was so nice....

[@cendietr2283]

I think it depends. From electricity (bulb, lamp, traffic light,etc.) or thermonuclear explosions ( solar energy).

[@rey8741]

Bruh that's sick ! Very good explanation

[@mtritt1296]

Excellent!

[@abdussamad657]

Nice illustration and thanks f

[@navneetkumaryadav7280]

Amazing, Thank you!!

[@cortwill4085]

Great animation ! 👍😁😄👏🙋‍♀️ You got an A++++++++++++++++++++++ Love from Cali S. Butler April 26th, 2024

[@nathanaelink]

I don't understand.. do they convert the wave lengths that are usually out of our spectrum in order for us to see them? Even if we make a camera that is activated by a certain wave type, how do we get in crammed back into a spectrum OUR eyes are activated by?

[@kizurain167]

the waves of light and colors are like waves of the ocean. it could be big or it could be small. this size of wave is called wavelength

[@MrPuppetMaster96]

What old the other light waves look like if we could see them? I can't imagine a new color!

[@Markus9705]

"do they convert the wave lengths that are usually out of our spectrum in order for us to see them?" Yeah, you can say that. In order to see the picture we must use visible light, yes.All you need to do is to multiply or divide the values, so you get wave lengths you can see. The cool thing here is that there're more colors than we can experience and see. There are more colors than we know. That's quite mind blowing, actually.

[@MrMegaMetroid]

Not more colours, just different wavelengths. Remember, lights doesn't have colours, as they are an addition of our brain. Everything outside of our soectrum just wasnt assigned a colour, because we cant detect in anyway. There is however nothing to indicate that the brain would make up a new colour for different wavelengths. All colours are made up by the brain and fitted onto the wavelengths you detect. We dont even know how the brain is doing it, or why its using colour specifically (since it could use basically any sensation to represent wavelengths). Extra fun fact, you CAN use different sensations to represent wavelengths by rerouting where the input is processed in the brain. Light only gets visible because its processed in the visual center of the brain. It can however, be processed in the auditory center and hearing it works just as well. Vice versa that works too. Thats how people on certain psychadelics can taste colours for example. Its all happening in the brain, colour is not a physical phenomenon, and not a property of light itself any more than pain is a property of a hot metal rod.

[@xplicitstyle]

I think the idea of the video was how blind we are and how much we cannot see. If we evolved differently we could maybe see magnetic waves, gamma waves or radio waves. They say the amount of the Electromagnetic spectrum that we can see, if you extended it from New York to Los Angeles is only the size of one single golf ball. That is completely mind blowing.

[@daisuke4bleach]

great video!

[@djsupream]

what is the difference between the focal point normal light in a camera and infrared light ?

[@kingoftangents]

Cool animation!

[@luminouswolf7117]

Came here being quite aware that there are facets of reality not readily apparent. Unfortunately, many seem to be under the impression that they have all pertinent information on reality.. while being blind to most of it.

[@chadandjill2004]

bro when she was getting abused my the wine bottles and the soup cans at 1:45 I realized that the whole video was her hallucinating because she had too much booze like and my teacher assigned this to children

[@xMikenugex]

amazing !!

[@lamar6941]

3:44 me when the light it shut and im trying to hit my sibling with a stick -_-

[@cortwill4085]

😮😮😮 hit your sibling with a stick!?!? What the #?$&

[@abe357382]

Some people have had surgery to remove a pert of their eye lense so they could see ultra violet light or so I read somewhere

[@iantheimeldific]

0:42 (PAUSE IT) Thats Creepy...

[@TinaChahhh]

Very nice video!

[@sunilmandal4270]

Thank You

[@natepepin09]

I know that there are a few other replies to this, but I think this one is better. Imagine your favorite song, and imagine you play it at 1/100 the speed. The pitch is lowered and it isn't likely to be recognizable. But if someone in the room records it in full, and then speeds it up by 100 times, they will essentially have the original track. In the same way, if the frequency of light is too high for the eye to see, they will stretch it out until it is in the visible spectrum.

[@sebastianschrage338]

I do not know it but i guess you have to edit the pictures (on a computer) by multiply the wave length. Lets say you can see from 1 to 5 and you want to see something between 0 and 1, then you simply multiply every value below 1 with 5 and got a value you are able to see

[@raheel9759]

I think light is visible when it hits particles and we can't see it passing through if there is no dust flying around but if it hits anybody it becomes visible

[@iezioaudi22]

WOW!!! WHAT A BRILLIANT VIDEO. THANK YOU TED ED

[@cortwill4085]

Ooooooo😬! That's got to hurt! Did it knock her out?😵 0:18

[@Hunter7509]

Good work

[@daxiaogui]

Those are the mathematical simulation of how a wave looks. They're used because this is how physical waves look. Look at a body of water to see what they mean. Does light actually move like this, nobody is actually sure but it's close enough to explain things.

[@daxiaogui]

there's a special relationship between water and microwaves, which causes water to absorb energy from microwaves easily. Think of how a black shirt collects far more heat in a sunny day than a white shirt does. It's an almost identical effect.

[@TheTjazi]

1:36 - shorter the wavelength, higher the energy!!!!

[@mudcrutched1]

You only NEED to see those wavelengths which emminate from physical objects.

[@KrlosF]

Thanx!

[@mail1482b]

Amazing

[@katiekat4457]

Excellent video. Great animations

[@TheGrape761]

0:59 is that lady okay..?

[@umrnaveed]

Nice!

[@joannak.4436]

Thank you, and the Science makes sense..there are missing pieces meaning.. some frequency of light and or sound certain animals and human can pick up and others can..lets say like invisible energy as ghosts or photonic energy... some gaps on info. Need to be filled,.but great video 👍

[@xplicitstyle]

We only call it light because we can see it. It is a human made concept. In fact what we see is a part of a spectrum so small if you extended it from New York to Los Angeles would be the size of a golf ball.

[@DemiRonin]

Made me feel like i was in middle school in the 90s

[@klaramcgoldrick4468]

LIGHT IS ALL OF CREATION! THANK LIGHT!

[@MinuteLaboratory]

The colors of the double rainbow at 2:50 are in wrong order. Anyway, great video!

[@chtadow13]

Man am so high. Enjoyed the video

[@GamesGirlsMovies]

so .. can we use radia waves as light source to power solar panels to make energy ? :/

[@TheMikeros]

awesome, i understanded all

[@jaxonlloyd6254]

very educational

[@mauriciogama1236]

You don't really understand it unless you can explain it to your grandmother .

[@matttatts]

I thought the animation was great fun!! She took an anvil to the box right off the start that brings the lolz

[@genericusername2]

The way the narrator says "wave" reminds me of a very subtle Bermudian accent

[@user-zw9ld1ok2d]

I like it!

[@gururajpanghri5949]

X Ray: ha ha ha!! IAM most powerful light wave ever!! Visible light:☹️ Gamma Ray: oi!! IAM the most powerful, X Ray! X Ray:--------------------------------------

[@readforknowledgerfk2879]

The most energetic wave is gamma rays lol

[@anasmmtaji]

“Light Light The visible reminder of Invisible Light.” ― T.S. Eliot