"The light, it's strange out here...it's kind of like it doesn't scatter quite right.""When light hits small particles the light scatters in all directions...scattered light then undergoes [an] interference by the surrounding particles...it can occur when light travels in transparent solids and liquids, but is most prominently seen in gases [such as the atmosphere]...scattering contribute[s] to diffuse light...dependent upon the size of the particles and the wavelength [or color] of the light." (Wiki)
So Dan could maybe have either noticed an odd color shift to the ambient island light (via the visible spectrum), or perhaps the kind of effect that you see during a solar eclipse. That's when the light of the sun passes around the moon on its way to the earth, and you can see in the light between the shadows of tree leaves a kind of diffused effect, like the shape of the sun during the eclipse. Magnetism and gravity can bend light also, creating odd visual results. Hope that we hear more about this soon! Thank you TPTB for sending a physicist to the island! :-D
More on the color spectrum and light scattering:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_spectrum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering
4 comments:
Have to imagine if the island isn't visible to the outside world that something would be funny about the light.
I wait and wait to hear someone utter the the words "cloaking device" on the show and keep getting denied. C'mon dan, you're enough of a geek to do it! ;)
Exactly Jay! :-D Let's hear it.
I'm so happy that you picked a Dan line to do a post on. There is just something so quirky and awesome about that guy!
That's a nice little piece of research you did there Capcom. Thanks for the interesting reading!
Thanks Ange! Your science blog for Find815 is an inspiration! I really like Dan, I hope that TPTB don't make him have a mean or bad streak like most everyone else on the island. There is something naive and sweet and appealing about people who are in love with science and don't have any normal social skills. :-)
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