How Do You See Someone or Something That's Not There?Do you like thermal cameras or night vision goggles? Have you ever thought about how, with these devices, we are able to see something or someone? The answer is Infrared. We interact with Infrared everyday as heat, but our eyes can't see the waves. An example would be a cup of coffee, shown below. That is why we use thermal cameras, because they show the Infrared waves. Even you give off Infrared waves, because our body has heat which emits the waves! Many people, with current technology, can change photos to look like it was taken from and Infrared camera, similar to the photo on the left.
The coffee mug is red, because of the heat. For more information on this picture click here. Infrared (in-fruh-red) is one of the seven radiations in the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength of Infrared is about the size of a grain of sand. The wave source of Infrared is the thermal radiation. NASA creates infrared satellites for us to know more about Infrared. Some weather programs use Infrared cameras to show the height of clouds. Warmer clouds are lower and colder clouds are higher. The warmer clouds show on the infrared satellite as white and the colder clouds show as shades of yellow, red, and purple confirmed by a weather website. The same is for other Infrared devices, that the lighter colors are warmer and the darker colors are cooler.
The Spitzer Space Telescope created and launched by NASA is helping us see Infrared in other stars and planets.
Did you know firefighters use Infrared cameras to detect people in a burning house? The Infrared cameras let firefighters see through the smoke and to find objects cooler than the fire.
Infrared is heat. That is the reason for Infrared Saunas and Infrared heaters.
Have fun with infrared cameras and applications! Infrared is an interesting electromagnetic wave to learn about.
Part I:
Part II:
Check out this blog about a comet that was detected using Infrared!
Thank you NASA for all the information supplied on their website!
Citations:
“infrared.” The Free Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. <http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/infrared+frequency>.
Lipnharski, Wagner. UST Research, inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. <http://www.ustr.net/infrared/infrared1>.
NASA. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2010. <http://science.hq.nasa.gov/kids/imagers/ems/infrared.html>.
5 comments:
To me, it seemed kind of funny to think of heat as a wave, but now I don't see how they it could travel in any other way. If I picture myself doing something like warming my hands next to a fire, now I can understand how the waves travel to my hands and make them warm.
I thought it was cool how people could just change a picture to look Infrared. i thought the videos were very interesting and helpful in my understanding of this wave.
I really liked the links you had in the blog, and how you gave readers an extra website to go to if they were still confused. The pictures were also really cool.
I think it's cool how firefighters use infrared radiation to find people stuck in a burning house.
I love your pictures! Nice. It's cool how firefighters (and military too) use thermal optics to find people by looking for their heat signature
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