Why does heat shimmer appear as a tangible object in the distance ?
85393
The heated air coming off the ground bends the light coming through it so that what you see appears to move or look like reflections in water. It has nothing to do with cones and rods other than that they are what you use to see all the time.
1070457
The temperature of the sum's surface gives it's characteristic color. If an object with a small hole in it were heated to the same temperature the light comming out of the hole would have the same temperature. i.e., black body radation.\n\nAlso because our eyes the characteristic light as yellow. Namely, the three color sensors in our eyes senses the Yellow more brightly than the red and blue. So, we see yellow.
573389
it's reactive to light
941040
I believe the light bulb would light up the sphere, like a lamp shade, You'd see the light but not the light bulb. The metal particles that are in a one sided mirror allow some light to come through.
670951
Unevenly reflected, I guess.\n\nIf it is absorbed, it would be completely black. If it was evenly reflected, it would be completely white. If it was trasmitted, it would be clear like glass. Uneven reflections let you see colours and texture.
32274
it's an optical illusion
1165138
It sounds like you need to create a gif file, which is a picture that moves, sparkles, ect.  You can get a trial of one at \nhttp://www.wsoft-lab.com/products/agif/\nor Google for a free one.
649942
Sorry, it's not 3D.\n\nMove to one side. Do any of the elements in the photograph move in relation to each other? Do the items in the foreground now hide different elements in the background? If the image was 3D then they would.
165350
wattage of the bulb is important...prob not generating enough heat to make the 'lava' flow (wax).\n\nIt should show signs of flow within an hour...at least!
937754
Something involving atomic spectra.  For example see\nhttp://www.fas.harvard.edu/~scdiroff/lds/QuantumRelativity/StreetLampSpectra/StreetLampSpectra.html
535775
Without going into the complexities of molecular theory, things APPEAR black because they absorb many wavelengths of visible light/EM radiation including infrared (heat) thus making them hotter.  Because everything is absorbed, no light is reflected and you see no light or darkness/black.  The excess absorbed energy manifests itself in many ways such as adding to the vibration of the molecules or heat.\n\nWITH slightly more detailed quantum theory:\n\nThe energy is absorbed by the electrons of the atoms that make up the black material and excite them from a ground level to a higher level or energy state.   From quantum mechanics, we know that these electrons will only absorb light of a given frequency/energy - that which corresponds to just enough energy to go from level 1 to level 2 to level 3 and so on - and will not absorb other frequencies (hence why we have red - green & blue absorption, etc).  In these black materials it just happens that the differences between all the energy states correspond to most frequencies of visible light giving you dark/black colours or full absorption.  At higher energy states, the atoms and molecules have extra energy which allows them to vibrate more or become hotter.  They're also less stable and reemit this energy in the form of infrared (heat) to get back to the more stable low energy state.
387444
Not really, but they look like twinkling because moving particles from space block the light that we see from down here so it looks like it's twinkling...Hope you understood my answer...sorry...
733136
All elements when heated give off a signature in the light spectrum. For example if you heated a piece of pure iron until it glowed then put a prism in front  of the light, you would see the spectrum of light -- obvious stuff. However because it is the metal iron there would be slots-- frequencies that would be missing. These signatures are all very different from each other depending on which element(s) are giving off light. When something is red shifted the signature is still there but it's place in the spectrum is in the wrong place. It has shifted to the red end of the spectrum-- it is in the longer or red end of it.\n\nThere is two ways to think of this, the other is that when heated elements will give off light in only so many frequencies- the rest of the frequencies are missing.
352065
some is reflected by the glass, and some passes straight through.  A tiny part will go towards heating up the glass itself, as it is absorbed during its transition throught the glass.
776408
Hi Scarlett,\n\nFirst of all, visible light waves consist of a continuous range of wavelengths or frequencies. When a light wave with a single frequency strikes an object, a number of things could happen. The light wave could be absorbed by the object, in which case its energy is converted to heat; the light wave could be reflected by the object; and the light wave could be transmitted by the object. Rarely however does just a single frequency of light strike an object. While it does happen, it is more usual that light of many frequencies or even all frequencies are incident towards the surface of objects. When this occurs, objects have a tendency to selectively absorb, reflect or transmit light of certain frequencies. That is, one object might reflect green light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light. Another object might selectively transmit blue light while absorbing all other frequencies of visible light. The manner in which visible light interacts with an object is dependent upon the frequency of the light and the nature of the atoms of the object.\n\n"White" or natural light is made up of different colours (as in a rainbow) and Isaac Newton showed that these could be shown by shining white light through a prism.\n\nWhat "colour" we see an object depends on what wavelength of light it does not absorb and that depends on what the chemistry of the object is. This is because the electrons in a substance will vibrate at a certain frequency depending on what the construction (i.e. what the chemistry) of the atom is. Accordingly this will either absorb (interfere) or coincide with the wavelength of a particular colour.\n\nThus we will always see different chemicals as different colours (ie. wavelengths).
575202
heat is a form of energy.
133407
It's because of evaporation.  Whenever something evaporates, it takes energy away from what it's touching, and the temperature goes down.