How far down does light travel underwater?
Friday, October 8th, 2010 at
6:14 pm
Saltwater/ocean if it makes a difference. On a clear day with no waves. If you were scuba diving, how far down can you be and still see well with only the human eye/no flashlights? (seeing other people, plants, and animals)
Also, if you were at the surface and looked down(with goggles on at the top of the water) how far down could you see?
Thanks!
The Epipelagic Zone ( the sunlight zone ) extends to approximately 660 feet this is the maximum depth that still receives a good amount of sunlight on a sunny day. The Mesopelagic Zone ( the twilight zone extends to approximately 3,300 feet this is the maximum depth that any sunlight can reach.
Physics of Light
If light, or rather the photons that construct light, existed in a vacuum, they would travel forever in any given direction. In reality, a beam of light experiences multiple disturbances such as absorption, reflection and refraction as it moves through space. This finite distance depends on the situation of the light being transmitted, direction and regions of space through which it will travel.
Short-Term Distance
According to the laws of physics, more than half of a light source becomes absorbed within the first three feet of penetrating the water surface. Red, one of the four primary colors that make the lighting spectrum, is the first to be absorbed.
Further Down
At 33 feet, the yellow pigment becomes fully absorbed, leaving only 20 percent of the original amount of surface light remaining.
Long-Term Distance
As light photons travel through the water, the amount of visible light remaining decreases exponentially. The green color on the light spectrum is next to go at 165 feet, leaving blue light as the final visible source (hence the common hue of underwater photography). By 330 feet only 0.5 percent of the light remains.
Read more: How Far Underwater Can Light Travel? | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_5513672_far-underwater-can-light-travel.html#ixzz11A3lK0Ru
References :
The Epipelagic Zone ( the sunlight zone ) extends to approximately 660 feet this is the maximum depth that still receives a good amount of sunlight on a sunny day. The Mesopelagic Zone ( the twilight zone extends to approximately 3,300 feet this is the maximum depth that any sunlight can reach.
References :
http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/ocean-layers.html