The Light of My Life (is not the light of your life)

Light of my Life is not the light of your life

It was Isaac Newton who from series of experiments postuated that light is a spectrum of 7 colors. We also believe from the colors we see in a rainbow. The red light along one edge of the rainbow is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of about 620 to 750 nanometres; the violet light along the opposite edge is radiation with a wavelength of 380 to 450nm.

But there is far more to electromagnetic radiation than these visible colours. Light with wavelengths slightly longer than the red light we see is called infrared. Light with wavelengths slightly shorter than violet is called ultraviolet.

Many animals can actually see ultraviolet, and so can some people, says Eleftherios Goulielmakis of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany. In some circumstances even infrared is visible to humans.

Beyond ultraviolet, electromagnetic wavelengths can go shorter than 100nm. This is the realm of X-rays and gamma rays. You won’t often hear X-rays described as a form of light.

“A scientist wouldn’t say ‘I’m shining X-ray light on the target’. They would say ‘I’m using X-rays’,” says Goulielmakis.

Meanwhile, go beyond infrared and electromagnetic wavelength stretches to 1cm and even up to thousands of kilometres. These electromagnetic waves are given familiar names like microwaves and radio waves. It may seem strange to think of the radio waves used in broadcasting as light.

“There is no real physical difference between radio waves and visible light from the point of view of physics,” says Goulielmakis. “You would describe them with exactly the same sort of equations and mathematics.” It’s only our everyday language that treats them as different.

So we have another definition of light. It is the very narrow range of electromagnetic radiation that our eyes can actually see. In other words, light is a subjective label that we only use because our senses are limited.

benny

Read Full Post »

Light-The concept of the Trinity

There was time when electricity and magnetism seemed different things for a layman. But scientists like Hans Christian Oersted and Michael Faraday established that they are deeply entwined.

Oersted found that an electric current passing through a wire deflects the needle of a magnetic compass. Meanwhile, Faraday discovered that moving a magnet near a wire can generate an electric current in the wire. The idea of “electromagnetism” did not emerge until James Clerk Maxwell showed that electric and magnetic fields travel in the manner of waves, and that those waves move essentially at the speed of light. By a leap of imagination he theorized that light itself was carried by electromagnetic waves – which means light is a form of electromagnetic radiation.

In the late 1880s, a few years after Maxwell’s death, German physicist Heinrich Hertz became the first to formally demonstrate that Maxwell’s theoretical concept of the electromagnetic wave was correct.

Maxwell’s contribution to science is huge. Albert Einstein, who was inspired by Maxwell, said that he changed the world forever. Among many other things, his calculations helped explain what light is.

Having provided some scientific background let me try to explain the concept of the Trinity. Ishall quote relevant parts from the Nicene Creed:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-*begotten Son of God, …light of Light, very God of very God; (*begotten in the sense he is not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.)

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

Electricity, Magnetism and Light are three manifestations of energy. Moslems would call their Supreme Being as the Lord of three worlds. Monotheism is fine and it has its way of manifesting in different modes. The Prophet of incomparable Light has to be inspired which is a mode different from writing down words. To be accurate and not miss an accent or sense is yet another mode; To be able to repeat verbatim is different. I can only answer for my faith. I have seen the light! I can say confidently. So shall say a blind standing under the sun being warmed by the light.

Do not forget the UN has designated 2015 as the International Year of Light.

I read the news this morning:

A toddler 18-month-old boy was killed in the night-time attack on two homes in the village of Duma,on the West Bank. His parents and brother suffered serious injuries. Slogans in Hebrew, including the word “revenge”, were found sprayed on a wall of one of the firebombed houses. On the other hand we had heard how a captured Jordanian pilot was set on fire by Daesh Jihadi elements. Obviously the glory of Light is wasted on them.

benny

Read Full Post »