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Re: QUANTA



At 18:54 3/2/99 -0500, you wrote:
A student asked if one could talk about quanta if an antenna was
broadcasting a frequency in the blue range of the visible spectrum for
example. Would we see it as blue? Would the mechanism for seeing it be
any different from seeing quantized forms of blue light?

I hope my question makes sense but it seems there is a difference here
but I am not sure how to explain it.

Thanks for any help, David Abineri
--
David Abineri dabineri@choice.net

It is well established that the rods of the human eye have
quantal sensitivity ( even if at low efficiency) i.e you can
demonstrate a rod responding to some few of the single quanta
successively hitting it at low light levels. I seem to recall
some seminal experiments took place at Harvard featuring cats
in stereotactical frames - a topic not for the squeamish,
certainly. So for humans, it needs a decent flux of quanta to
excite the cones.
in view of the broadness (low 'q') of our basic three receptor
color sensitivity responses, the need for pure 'blueness'of the flux
is not very acute.

Or so I seem to recall...

Brian

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK