What is Red light?

Red light is the part of light that looks red to our eyes, like the color of a stop sign or a red apple.

Imagine you're playing with a flashlight in a dark room. When you turn it on, it sends out many different kinds of light, but each one has its own special speed and energy, kind of like how your brother might run faster than your sister when you all race to the fridge for snacks.

Light is made up of tiny waves that travel through the air. Each color of light has a different wavelength, which is like the distance between each wave. Red light has longer wavelengths, imagine it's like a slow, long step in a dance.

Other colors, like blue or green, have shorter wavelengths, think of them as quick little skips in the same dance.

When red light reaches your eye, your brain says, "Oh, that’s red!" and you see something red, like a balloon or a fire truck. So even though all those different colors are part of the same light, we only notice the ones our eyes tell us about, and that includes red!