Thoughts about Light Particles/What is Light exactly?

[wessy]

Hello. I am not a scientist, nor do I know where to put this, sorry.

Was at work and started thinking about how we're able to see colors. It reflects every other color and holds the one you see, and it got me thinking about metallic surfaces and more specifically chrome. If chrome wasn't "shiny" then what color would it reflect if not all the ones around it? Would it be black, grey, or white? Anyways, my thoughts led to light, if light were "physical particles", and surely they'd have to be in this "dimension", how are we able to see through them? If we can see through them then how are they emitting light? Are they just small enough to float around like a gas, or like, steam? Tiny particles of something roughly similar to gas, but they just glow? Small enough to not see but bright enough to float around and glow? I'm not sure what I'm asking if I even am asking anything, but I figured I should probably get this thought out there somewhere, idk.

 

Thanks for the read, any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.

[Intoscience]

Hi and welcome,

Yes, it can be all very confusing and also wonderous!

Someone will be along shortly who can give you a very detailed and accurate description of what light is and how it interacts with the environment and objects. 

But in brief light is a form of energy that comes in discreet packages called photons which in themselves have no mass. The colours and in fact all light both visible and nonvisible (to the naked eye) such as things like radio waves, microwaves, infra red etc.. have specific wave lengths across a wide spectrum. The individual colors that you see are the individual wave lengths of light across a narrow spectrum, and how light interacts with the medium it comes into contact with determines the wave length of the reflected photons.

So in general when photons come into contact with an object they get scattered in different directions and at different (wave lengths) the frequencies of photons your eyes are able collect sit within certain band width that your brain can then build a picture from this. (quite amazing really!)

Just to add since photons have no physical size in terms of how you imagine particles, they are not like the particles of gas and other matter which you imagine them to be.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Intoscience
spelling

[Lorentz Jr]

5 hours ago, wessy said:

how we're able to see colors. It reflects every other color and holds the one you see

When you see a normal object, the object permanently absorbs the colors you don't see. It also absorbs the ones you see, but only temporarily. Electrons near the object's surface get excited by light shining on them, and then they re-emit the light in all directions in colors that correspond to the energy gaps between the electron states.

5 hours ago, wessy said:

If chrome wasn't "shiny" then what color would it reflect if not all the ones around it? Would it be black, grey, or white?

I don't think it's possible for chrome to not be shiny (as long as it's clean). The energy gaps between its electron states are very small, so it reflects all electromagnetic radiation.

5 hours ago, wessy said:

if light were "physical particles", and surely they'd have to be in this "dimension", how are we able to see through them? If we can see through them then how are they emitting light?

What do you mean? Are you asking why light emits light?

All accelerating electric charges emit electromagnetic radiation, and ordinary objects are illuminated by light sources.

5 hours ago, wessy said:

Are they just small enough to float around like a gas, or like, steam? Tiny particles of something roughly similar to gas, but they just glow? Small enough to not see but bright enough to float around and glow?

Other than being quantized, photons are just waves in the electromagnetic field. They are  the glow.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Lorentz Jr