The sun burns with a much higher intensity than a candle! Visible light is a form of electromagnetic radiation, with a particular range of wavelengths (from blue to red!), however it isn’t the only radiation that heat sources emit. UV radiation is a different wavelength to visible light, and is a lot more dangerous as it can penetrate through the layers of our skin. The radiation from candles and bedroom lamps isn’t powerful enough to give us a noticeable tan, however you can still get a tan in a tanning bed! Tanning beds produce UV radiation, not identical to the sun but enough to give us a tan.
I would say because the Sun is bigger and burns a lot brighter we get so much UV radiation from it than we would do from the small flame of a candle. However I think Thomas has done an amazing job answering and I would say he has given you a far more scientific answer than I ever could.
So even though a bonfire is much hotter than your average candle, the amount of UV radiation that it produces is still minimal – fire is a chemical reaction, whilst the energy from the sun is from nuclear reactions! In order to get a tan from a bonfire you’d have to have a HUGE one, sit super close, and somehow block all of the infrared radiation (heat) whilst still letting the UV radiation through. Polarised sunglasses do the opposite, by letting light in the visible spectrum through but blocking UV wavelengths.
So in short, yes you can get a tan from a bonfire, but you’d burn way before!
Comments
anon-175412 commented on :
Could you get a sun tan from being in front of a huge bonfire? If you were really close?
Thomas commented on :
So even though a bonfire is much hotter than your average candle, the amount of UV radiation that it produces is still minimal – fire is a chemical reaction, whilst the energy from the sun is from nuclear reactions! In order to get a tan from a bonfire you’d have to have a HUGE one, sit super close, and somehow block all of the infrared radiation (heat) whilst still letting the UV radiation through. Polarised sunglasses do the opposite, by letting light in the visible spectrum through but blocking UV wavelengths.
So in short, yes you can get a tan from a bonfire, but you’d burn way before!
anon-175412 commented on :
Thank you for answering my comment.!