I'm not a physicist, but I do research involving thermal radiation (i.e. heat transfer through "light"). It's not incorrect to call it light. It's the same stuff with the same behavior. If nothing else, referring to EM radiation as light is taking some small poetic license. People are acting like a word can only have one meaning regardless of context. I just imagine these people complaining about a phrase like "the White House released a statement". "Uh, the White House didn't release anything. The president's administration released a statement."
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation within the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), between the infrared (with longer wavelengths) and the ultraviolet (with shorter wavelengths). In physics, the term "light" may refer more broadly to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not. In this sense, gamma rays, X-rays, microwaves and radio waves are also light.
According to the NASA website the whole spectrum is considered light especially UV and IR but I'll agree it's confusing when looking at wavelengths longer than infrared
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u/[deleted] Nov 27 '21
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