I n these pages, we hope to shed new light on the subject of light. This information is rushing past at 186,282 miles per second, ricocheting off the walls, bouncing around like mad, and, sometimes, hitting you squarely in the eye. When you take away light you take away information. In a darkened room, you can see little or nothing of your surroundings. Little or no light means little or no information.
C onsider a photographer taking a color photo of a class of students.
It wasn't on the film or in the camera. The information was in the light. The photograph of your class is a static image containing much of the information carried by the light. Whenever you look at your surroundings, you gather visual images - the light entering each eye makes an image on your eye's retina. Even though you can't see light move, you can directly experience the images it produces.