Why can't we see ultraviolet light?

Question

due in 3 days as of 24 june 08

Answer 1

UV rays are emitted at such a high frequency that our eyes can't see them.  Try this then you're at home: take your TV remote and look into the little laser bubble on the front.  Push the power button.  you won't see anything.  Now, take a digital camera and turn it on.  am the laser bubble at the lense of the camera and watch through the LCD screen.  push the power button on the TV remote and the bubble will likely turn a purple/blue color.  The camera's lense CAN see the UV rays because the camera doesn't have muscles and reflexes controlling what it can and can't see. hope this helped you out some.

Answer 2

Because it is beyond capability of human eyes.  We only see a tiny segment of the total light range spectrum.  One end is ultra violet and other end is infra red and we can only see the mid range in between those ends.

Answer 3

Ultraviolet light has a range of wave lengths that are all shorter than visible light.  The human eye cannot process a light wave length that short.

Cone cells, or cones, are photoreceptor cells in the retina of the eye.  Each of these three types of cones are receptive to different wavelengths of light-short, medium and long.  However, none of the three are receptive to the short wavelengths of UV light.

It is interesting to note that birds CAN see UV light.  Bird color vision differs from that of humans.  It appears that UV vision is a general property of diurnal birds, having been found in over 40 species using a combination of microspectrophotometry, electrophysiology, behavioral methods, and gene sequencing.