If the answer is YES, a related follow-up question: if each visible color of the spectrum were to measure a centimeter in width, how far would I have to move the sensor from the red to detect the change from infrared to microwave, then to radio?

In the knowledge that Sir William Herschel discovered infrared by repeating Newton’s experiment, but with a thermometer to measure the temperature of each component of the spectrum, and after placing the thermometer a bit to the side of the red light, in darkness, noticed quite by accident that the device would still register heat, therefore an invisible yet very real component of light was there, warming the thermometer.

  • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    A few practical issues:

    1. https://asgs-glass.org/optical-transmission/ some examples of transmission spectrum for different glasses. So not all wavelengths will pass through.

    2. Everything above absolute zero radiates photons. The prism, the detector, etc.

    3. The radiation spectrum is usually drawn using some type of non linear mapping, as the ranges are quite large.