eli5 why is the infra red part of the spectrum warm?
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It is not. All light carries heat. All hot objects emit light. As an object heats up, the light it emits is of higher and higher frequencies. However, it doesn’t stop emitting lower frequencies too.
So, hot objects glow, and unless they are *very* hot the majority of the heat they emit is in the range of IR. Meanwhile, in heat lamps and the like, they use mainly IR since it is easier as well as because that much visible light would be blinding.
Radio waves also carry heat, such as seen in microwaves, but generating that much radio energy requires intent. You need to make a machine specifically to do that, whereas with IR it just happens from high temperatures.
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