This is an excerpt from my blog:
Today I learned a lot about how light works, how the different spectrums that come from light when shone through a prism differentiate the colors that we see (and don't see), and why there are gaps in the color spectrum.
It's amazing to think about where color comes from. As I watched episode 5 of The Cosmos I couldn't help but wonder. Why? Why does color scatter as it does? According to the episode, when light hits a prism (or Earth's atmosphere) the different colors are scattered in such a way according to where they are in the spectrum. I can't remember the exact details however I did learn that there was an experiment done by William Hershel in which he used a prism and several thermometers. When the different colors hit the thermometers he found that red light was warmer than blue light. What he discovered was the control thermostat he was using which didn't have any visible light shone on it was actually warmer than the red color. Therefore infared light was discovered!
This made me wonder what other things we cannot see due to our lack of sight of the invisible spectrum of light. How much are we missing? Does this make us truly blinded by the light?