Glossary term: Luz
Description: La luz es radiación electromagnética. En el uso común, el término «luz» suele referirse a la radiación electromagnética cuya longitud de onda puede percibirse a simple vista. La longitud de onda de la luz que pueden percibir los seres humanos se sitúa, en términos generales, en el rango de 380 a 750 nanómetros (nm), aunque la mayoría de las personas tienen muy poca sensibilidad a la luz con longitudes de onda inferiores a 400 nm. Se trata de una parte reducida del espectro electromagnético, que abarca un amplio rango de longitudes de onda, desde los rayos gamma (los más cortos) hasta las ondas de radio (las más largas). En un sentido más amplio, el término «luz» se aplica a veces a cualquier tipo de radiación electromagnética.
Las propiedades básicas de la luz son la intensidad, la dirección de propagación, la frecuencia, el espectro y la polarización. Su velocidad en el vacío se define como exactamente 299 792 458 metros por segundo, y esta es una de las constantes fundamentales de la naturaleza. El color de la luz depende de su longitud de onda. La luz violeta tiene la longitud de onda más corta del espectro visible; la roja, la más larga. La luz tiene múltiples fuentes, tanto naturales como artificiales; el Sol es la principal fuente de luz de la Tierra. La luz se emite y se absorbe en pequeños «paquetes» llamados fotones, que tienen propiedades tanto de ondas como de partículas. Este último fenómeno se denomina dualidad onda-partícula.
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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
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