Infrared Light

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Term Paper Title	Infrared Light
# of Words	878
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.51

Infrared Light

The word “infrared” comes from the Latin word “infra” which means “beneath” or “below”.  Thus, the term “infrared” refers to a color beneath the visible spectrum.  Sir William Herschel, an English astronomer, discovered it in 1800.  He became interested in it when he put a prism in front of sunlight to form a spectrum.  He took a thermometer and measured the temperature of various colors.  He noticed that red was hotter than the rest.  Then he moved it behind the red and the heat still rose, this led him to believe in another color, the invisible color known as infrared. The main interest in infrared light is in the field of electronics.  Remote controls utilize infrared light as a conduit of information between the controller and the device. Using infrared light for this use is much better than using a lower frequency or a higher frequency wave.  Visible light or colored light rather, does not have the “power” to carry electronic information.  And using a higher frequency should be too much for the receiver, although I have not researched this.
     Infrared light’s Pioneering use in the field of photography was to detect heat loss in a person or structure because heat is given off as infrared light.  But it is also used in the traditional sense of photography.  Not so much scientifically, but as a means of creating very surreal images.
Video also has its share of infrared technology.  Over 70 years ago a man named John Logie Baird invented an infrared video system he called Noctovision.  This was about the same time when infrared film was invented.  Now we can use it to light a dark room with out ever actually seeing any light.  An organization called The Spy Store offers a unit that can emit infrared light to light up a dark place with out emitting any visible light.  You also have to buy a specialized camera that can detect the emissions.  Of course the sticker for the illuminator is about $360 itself.
Although it’s primary use seems to be for diodes for various electronic equipment, NASA has also been making use of infrared technology in the Hubble telescope.  Scientists have come up with a new instrument that is enables the Hubble to see farther into space than was ever possible in the past.  This new instrument is called NICMOS (Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Selector).  It can actually see galaxies that could be over 12,000,000,000 light-years away.  The reason this works so much better is because before now it ha...

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