How do we see in color?

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The Visible and Non-visible Light Spectrum

light chart

As you can see from the illustration above, visible light is only a very small portion of all light waves. You may ask yourself why is it that we only see the "visible" portion of light? If you study the illustration above, you will see at the earth's surface almost all the wavelengths with any significant energy are visible (see the green peak). There are some very small amounts of ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths that are present. In some cases, insects and other animals have adapted to see with those wavelengths.

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Visible light spectrum

The visible light spectrum humans can see is only a small part of all light wavelengths.

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