[ELI5] Why is night vision green ?
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they could make it any color, but they use green because the human eye is most sensitive to the color green.
it works similar to how an old style television works. the image is converted to electrons, which hit a glass lens covered in “phosphor” which is a substance that glows when struck by electrons. the inner surface of old televisions was coated with a similar substance. There are many different phosphors, that can produce many different colors.
I learned this on a field trip as a kid, infrared night vision produces a monochromatic image, and humans can see more shades of green than any other color, so they use green to give the most gradient detail visible to the human eye.
Edit- damn swipe spelling
It’s a trope that isn’t really true anymore.
Early gen 1 and 2 night vision used phosphor tubes which produced a green image. This was cause by how photons reacted with the phosphor and were amplified.
Like I said that’s old school. Most sets these days produce a white image and use digital sensors though some still use tubes which give a white image.
It’s much better for eye strain etc because it engages all of your rods and cones rather than just the green receptors
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