Seeing Through Walls: Superman and the Science of Sight
INTRODUCTION POWERFUL PEEPERS Superman may be the most famous super hero of all time Who doesn’t know his origin story Sent to Earth as a baby from the dying planet Krypton Raised in Kansas as an ordinary human by Jonathan and Martha Kent But he isn’t ordinary is he As an alien from another planet Superman has all sorts of powers that we can only dream about Superman is not only fast and strong he’s not called the Man of Steel for nothing but he also flies is incredibly smart and has super-vision In fact his eyes can emit X-rays heat rays and see at telescopic and microscopic levels As ordinary humans we can’t shoot heat beams out of our eyes Although we only use our eyes to see Superman’s power is a reminder that the science behind vision is pretty extraordinary And human sight is just the start From vision enhancement to amazing animal eyes there’s more to sight than well meets the eye X-ray an invisible high-energy beam of light that can pass through solid objects
FACT Superman’s super-vision developed gradually from his 1938 appearance in comics He first used X-ray vision in 1939 microscopic vision in 1940 and heat vision in 1949
Gamma-rays X-rays Ultraviolet light light Visible radiation Microwaves Microwaves SECTION 1 HUMAN SIGHT The first time the waves Radio people of Metropolis saw a blue blur zipping across the sky they were stunned to see a man in flight But they may not have stopped to think about something equally as amazing their ability to see Superman in the first place Take a peek at the science that makes sight possible Light and sight Understanding the science of sight begins with light Just as Superman did as a baby sunlight travels through space to reach our planet But it doesn’t travel on a rocket ship It travels in energy waves The full range of energy waves from the Sun is called the electromagnetic spectrum THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM Electromagnetic waves can be long short or somewhere in between Most of these waves are invisible We can’t see shorter higher energy waves such as gamma rays X-rays and ultraviolet light We also can’t see longer lower energy infrared light waves microwaves and radio waves Visible light which is in the middle of the spectrum is the only light energy we can see
We call visible light from the Sun white light But it’s not just one color It is actually made up of different colors mixed together The different colors in white light each have a different energy level Have you learned the name Roy G Biv to remember the colors of the rainbow It stands for red orange yellow green blue indigo and violet These colors are always in the same order because they are organized by their energy level Red light has lower energy than green light And violet light has the highest energy of all visible light A prism is a piece of glass that can split white light into the colors of the rainbow ultraviolet light an invisible form of light that can cause sunburns infrared light an invisible form of light that gives off heat
