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Why do we feel infrared light as heat? Do we feel heat from light of other frequencies?

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  • Asked by cindi
  • on 2010-04-28 09:41:11
  • Member status
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Categories: Human Body.

Tags: light, heat, perceive, InfraRed.

 

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Jon-Richfield says:

The reason we feel IR as warmth is partly because we are adapted to do so when it deposits heat in our tissues where we have the right nerve endings to detect it. However, we also feel other things as warmth, usually because some other event deposits heat, or because something stimulates those nerve endings, for example rubefacient liniments like wintergreen or mustard oils.

Why sunlight feels warm is partly because of its high IR content, and partly because the IR penetrates your skin better than most of the visible light does. Actually photon for photon, Ir contains less heat (well, less energy) than visible light does.

As for other light causing the sensation of heat, UV can do so, sort of, by damaging the skin in a way that later feels painfully hot (sunburn), though that is not quite the same thing; it is rather the inflammation reaction to the tissue damage.

However, visible light can feel warm too if it is concentrated enough.  If you doubt this, focus some sunlight on your skin with a magnifying glass. Strictly speaking, as a control one should first eliminate the IR in the sunlight, but most glass lenses are not very IR-transparent anyway, and trust me, intensely focussed sunlight without IR also feels pretty hot; also, think of a laser burn.

I hope that is warmly illuminating, or at least illuminatingly warm.

 

Jon

 

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Tags: light, heat, perceive, InfraRed.

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posted on 2010-04-29 07:09:11 | Report abuse


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PeteFowler365 says:

We only feel mid infrared as heat.  Near infrared, close to visible light, such as the light from the LED of a TV remote, doesn't register as heat when you shine it on your skin.  Neither does far infrared, near the microwave part of the spectrum, which is why you need to take care with microwaves; they can cook you before you feel any damage.  But visible light is absorbed by your skin and converted to heat, so light or near IR of sufficient intensity are perceived as heat.

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posted on 2010-05-01 06:49:26 | Report abuse


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FullJ says:

All wavelengths of light have heat however red light is warmer than light on the other end of the scale. The reason you might feel heat from IR and not from the other wavelengths could be due to the ambient temperature. Another reason is due to perception, if your hands are cold it takes less heat to make them feel warm, likewise if your hands are very warm a cool object will feel even colder.

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posted on 2010-05-14 13:14:28 | Report abuse

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dk says:

I created this account simply to tell you that you should never, ever be allowed on a science forum.  ever, go home and read

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Tags: light, heat, perceive, InfraRed.

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posted on 2011-04-17 05:45:20 | Report abuse


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luxumun says:

The light ray is mixture of diffrent types of friquency so it is the form of energy also because heat wave as infra red ray,ultra violets are heats or increases temprature when they concentrated any object.

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posted on 2010-05-27 20:26:04 | Report abuse


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