[net.physics] Query about "averaging" photons ...

ee163hp (01/27/83)

Does anyone know the answer to this (and whether it's been determined
experimentally):

     If an ultraviolet photon and an infrared photon strike the same
receptor in your eye at virtually the same place and time, does your
eye:
        1) Not respond because we aren't built for infrared and uv?
        2) Respond because the infrared and uv have an interference
           effect which results in what appears as a photon of
           some visible wavelength?

     Thanks in advance to anyone who does know,
     Larry West  --  not a physicist!
     U.C.S.D.  ( ..sdcsvax!sdccsu3!ee163hp )

mmt (02/03/83)

As you shorten the wavelength beyond the normally visible,
near ultraviolet becomes less deep indigo, returning toward blue
in hue, but also less saturated (greyer) than light of the same
hue but longer wavelength. You can't see it very much further
in the short wavelengths when you stimulate the retina than
by just looking (don't try: it damages the (?) cornea).
		Martin Taylor