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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Ryan McReynolds: [QB] > Well, I was under the impression that heat was infra- > red radiation, and that it was thus simply composed > of relatively low-energy photons... No. "Heat" is just the motion of molecules. The faster they move and the more they collide, the hotter something is. Everything at a given temperature radiates a certain portion of the specturm. Stars, for instance, at thousands of degrees, radiate visible light. The reason that using the infrared spectrum is sometimes called "heat vision" is because most things on Earth, at a few dozen degrees, radiate in the infrared portion of the spectrum, just outside of our eyesight. Something really cold (interstellar dust, for instance) might radiate at radio wavelengths. Things that are really hot, such as the acretion disk just above a black hole's event horizon, radiate x-rays. As an aside, everything actually emits photons at all wavelengths, just in varying proportions. When I say that the human body gives off infrared-level photons, that's just the wavelength it gives off most. I'm not sure what the emission rate is for a person's body, but it's not inconceivable that you give off a gamma ray or two every so often. Simply: heat doesn't have a particle, it describes particle motion. Infra-red doesn't mean "hot," it just happens to be the photons associated with living things' temperatures. -=Ryan McReynolds=- [This message has been edited by Ryan McReynolds (edited March 10, 2001).] [/QB][/QUOTE]
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