Tag Archives: physics

Sunlight Series: Part 5 – Solar Irradiance and Earth’s Atmosphere

Featured image courtesy of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Introduction:

I began this series by opining that using sunscreen is a misguided approach to protecting yourself from the sun’s radiation (unless under extreme circumstances), and that we should, in fact, be exposing our bare skin to unfiltered sunlight regularly.  By the end of this series (still another few posts), I really hope I will have you convinced! Continue reading Sunlight Series: Part 5 – Solar Irradiance and Earth’s Atmosphere

Sunlight Series: Part 3 – The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Featured image courtesy of Miriam.

My last post discussed the nature of light, and that our current understanding is that light can be thought of as an electromagnetic wave carrying varying amounts of energy expressed by different wavelengths, or frequencies. Continue reading Sunlight Series: Part 3 – The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Sunlight Series: Part 2 – Electromagnetic Radiation

Featured photo courtesy of Tamara.

Before a detailed discussion on the effects of sunlight on the body can begin, I believe the reader should be oriented with the concept of ‘light’ itself, which is the intention of this post. I’m not going to explain optics, Continue reading Sunlight Series: Part 2 – Electromagnetic Radiation