How come we can see all matter even despite being limited in seeing a range of frequency?

>>
that only reflects a light frequency that we cannot see. Like UV.
>>

UV or IR is not light.

"Light" is the part of the visible spectrum we see. UV or IR are either below the visible spectrum or beyond it.

A (red) Apple does not only reflect visible, red light, obviously it can also "reflect" IR (heat) or maybe even UV.

How should that work that a material object would only reflect a certain wave length, but no other?

If an object is illuminated (say, by the sun)....obviously the object will reflect back a certain amount of this light..which we SEE.

If the object were NOT to reflect (light)...it would somehow have to absorb all the light shone on it..like a black hole...because as soon as some light reflects back we would of course see (this light).

Since any "normal" material to some extent will reflect back normal sun light we will also see "normal light" from the object.

So the answer to your question would be...because no "normal" material can 100% absorb visible light..or at least no material/object I would know of right this second.

Danbones
glass is kinda hard to see
so is any one atom of anything...
at least I can't see them without my glasses on

edit on 22-2-2014 by Danbones because: (no reason given)

That's a good one.

Yes, in some way (and under some circumstances) glass cannot be seen. But a glass surface can certainly reflect heat (IR).

Simple...would kind of fit the criterion.

reply to post by NoRulesAllowed


If someone is interested in the real reasons behind why something is translucent or not:

Transparency and translucency

reply to post by Nexusnews


I wonder if creatures, intelligence can exist in forms outside our perceivable sight. Main steam science to my knowledge never asked or investigated an answer to this question. If there was we could all be in a lot of trouble.

Indigent
reply to post by Nexusnews

 

Dude you are mistaken, matter is much smaller than light wavelength, and by the way you are going the wrong way the smallest wavelength is gamma rays. here you go

Electromagnetic spectrum

Dude please do not patronize me or derail the thread. I understand the electromagnetic theory and am actually an Engineer for Radar and EW systems.

I am simply bringing a question from another forum for healthy debate here asking about matter existing elsewhere in the Electromagentic spectrum or possibly off the spectrum. You just happened to focus it on UV spectrum.

So onwards we go.

Dark matter neither emits nor absorbs light or other electromagnetic radiation at any significant level. It is otherwise hypothesized to simply be matter that is not reactant to light.....

.....According to the Planck mission team, and based on the standard model of cosmology, the total mass–energy of the known universe contains 4.9% ordinary matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy.[2][3] Thus, dark matter is estimated to constitute 84.5% of the total matter in the universe, while dark energy plus dark matter constitute 95.1% of the total content of the universe.

Dark Matter

So my question is what would happen if we encountered Dark Matter which is 95.1% of the total universe?

reply to post by Nexusnews

So my question is what would happen if we encountered Dark Matter which is 95.1% of the total universe?

I'm gonna go out on a limb to say it won't happen.
We're just stuck here in our boring waveleangth spectrum with our funny brains doing all sorts of stuff to us

reply to post by Nexusnews


To be an engineer you truly have no idea to why you can see a thing or not, hint absorption is not size related

So what matter exists in the microwave range?

explain this question in relation to this chart and please tell me what you really mean with that question



matter does not "exist" in other range of the spectrum.

if you want an explanation of dark matter is simple

Dark matter is a type of matter hypothesized in astronomy and cosmology to account for a large part of the mass that appears to be missing from the universe.

things does not move as they should according to models so there must be more matter that what we see. there are alternative models that does not require exotic matter.

zilebeliveunknown
reply to post by Nexusnews

 

So my question is what would happen if we encountered Dark Matter which is 95.1% of the total universe?

I'm gonna go out on a limb to say it won't happen.
We're just stuck here in our boring waveleangth spectrum with our funny brains doing all sorts of stuff to us

edit on 22-2-2014 by zilebeliveunknown because: (no reason given)

Believe it or not we are currently seeking it It has to be there....

The CHASE laboratory search for chameleon dark energy

GammeV Experiment T-969

Nexusnews
Saw this question posed on another forum and thought it would also bring some healthy debate here as well.

We can see an apple because it reflects red light. A frequency of light we can see. Why is there no object on earth that only reflects a light frequency that we cannot see. Like UV. Let us say that there is an object that only reflects UV or IR frequencies. These objects are real physical objects but cannot be seen by the human eye. Since the earth is supposed to be random, these object should actually exist. Why don't they?

-Nexusnews

This comes up occasionally, although it seems sort of goofy to me.

You see the occasional post/thread often featuring the supposition that perhaps UFOs/aliens can't be seen because they either only reflect or emit outside the visible light spectrum. Thus, they are invisible.

Piffle.

If an object doesn't reflect light of a certain frequency, it either transmits, scatters, refracts or absorbs it. There's not much option for anything else. If it absorbs all light in the visible spectrum, then it will appear flat black to you. If it absorbs some and transmits others, it may appear one color at an angle but another if you're looking through it. If it transmits light without scattering, absorption or refraction it may in fact be invisible, but in order to do this it's got to be the same refractive index as air and perfectly uniform, which rarely occurs. If it absorbs (slightly), scatters or refracts light, you'll see it as a transparent object like a drinking glass.

Nexusnews
Dude please do not patronize me or derail the thread. I understand the electromagnetic theory and am actually an Engineer for Radar and EW systems.

I am simply bringing a question from another forum for healthy debate here asking about matter existing elsewhere in the Electromagentic spectrum or possibly off the spectrum.

I have to say I doubt that very much, as I actually am an engineer for that sort of thing and the statement "matter existing elsewhere in the electromagentic spectrum" doesn't make sense in terms of physics.

Electromagnetic radiation has the property of having a wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum. Matter is not electromagnetic radiation, and thus doesn't "exist in the electromagnetic spectrum" at all.

Indigent
reply to post by Nexusnews

 

explain this question in relation to this chart and please tell me what you really mean with that question

matter does not "exist" in other range of the spectrum.

if you want an explanation of dark matter is simple

Dark matter is a type of matter hypothesized in astronomy and cosmology to account for a large part of the mass that appears to be missing from the universe.

things does not move as they should according to models so there must be more matter that what we see. there are alternative models that does not require exotic matter.

We could go on and on about this, however it is getting to be around midnight here in England so off to bed I go. I will come back to the thread tomorrow and we can continue if you want.


Thanks for participating in the debate! Exactly why I started the thread. Talk soon.

I will try and address other reply's as well.

-Nexusnews

intrptr

So far, the spirit world is invisible to every form of detection man has developed.

Unless of course they want you to see them.

regards,

intrptr

Or, more simply, the spirit world doesn't exist, and thus cannot be seen. The people who DO think they have seen spirits are mistaken or delusional. That covers it too.

Nexusnews
Think you are missing the point.

So what matter exists in the microwave range?

Why wouldn't we bump into this matter? Does this matter exist in our world or is it in another dimension?

Matter doesn't exist in any electromagnetic wavelength, because it's not electromagnetic radiation. The question doesn't make sense. One might ask for clothing in the A440 range with the same lack of meaning.

Bedlam

Nexusnews
Think you are missing the point.

So what matter exists in the microwave range?

Why wouldn't we bump into this matter? Does this matter exist in our world or is it in another dimension?

Matter doesn't exist in any electromagnetic wavelength, because it's not electromagnetic radiation. The question doesn't make sense. One might ask for clothing in the A440 range with the same lack of meaning.

You need to go read up. Please quit derailing. Matter does exist, I will not sit here and teach you about sub-atomic particles.

-Nexusnews

Nexusnews
You need to go read up. Please quit derailing. Matter does exist, I will not sit here and teach you about sub-atomic particles.

-Nexusnews

The only thing I'm derailing here is your basic mistake about matter existing on the electromagnetic spectrum. Matter indeed exists, and it's matter. It's not EM radiation. Since matter is not EM radiation, it isn't "on the electromagnetic spectrum". The two don't even relate.

reply to post by Bedlam


Let me get this right. So you are saying matter doesn't emit EM radiation?

ETA: Or are you saying radiation is devoid of matter (particles).

Kukri
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Let me get this right. So you are saying matter doesn't emit EM radiation?

Nope, matter that's above absolute zero emits EM all the time, the wavelength of which is related to the temperature. But matter itself is not EM radiation, and is not "on the electromagnetic spectrum".

Unless you're talking matter that's very very hot, you're not going to get matter emitting radiation in the visible spectrum anyway. Note that "emit" and "reflect" are very different things.

reply to post by Nexusnews


With the exception of something very low density like a gas, even if we can't "see" the exotic material in question, its presence will block or perhaps alter our perception of anything visible behind it.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


This is exactly what I was thinking as well, what if there is actually another form of matter or reality that doesn't interfere with our world? Our atoms can't collide nor interact with eachother, so we have no way of detecting this other form of matter.

reply to post by doompornjunkie

Aaaaannnndddd...
So what? What if there was something that had no interaction with our world and we were incapable of detecting on any level? Would that be cool, or what?