


UVC Lightsĭue to their short wavelengths, the UVC rays are blocked by the ozone layer, and they don’t reach the Earth’s surface. There are 3 subcategories of UV light, and those are, from shorter to longer wavelengths: UVC, UVB and UVA lights. UV light is on the part of the wavelength spectrum that reaches the Earth from the Sun. The name comes from the fact that it is right below our visible spectrum, below the first light color that we can see, and that’s violet. UV or ultraviolet light has a shorter wavelength than the light that’s visible to us, meaning that we’re simply not able to see it. The light wavelengths that we are able to see, which go from violet to blue, green, yellow, orange and, in the end, red, with all the nuances in between, are called the visible spectrum. Because lights are nothing more than electromagnetic radiation, it’s measured in wavelengths. Similarly to sounds, there are some lights that the human eye can see, and some that it can’t. Some animals (bats, dolphins, elephants, and whales, for instance) are able to hear frequencies that are much lower or higher than what our ears are capable of hearing – to us, those sounds would translate to total silence. Yes, we know, you came here to read about black light, so what’s sound got to do with anything? Well, it serves as an illustration that human senses are very limited. So let’s begin, shall we? UV LightsĪs you already know, humans can hear only a certain spectrum of frequencies and anything below or above that spectrum will be inaudible to our ears. But to understand what they actually are, we have to go a bit further into exploring what UV lights are. Chances are you’ve asked yourself what is black light (or blacklight), exactly? Is a black light a UV light? The short answer to this would be yes, black lights are a sort of UV lights. If you’ve ever delved a little deeper into the world of light, or if you’ve watched an episode of CSI: Miami, you’ve probably come across the blacklight vs UV light debate.
