#QOTO: How, or whether, would the human eye perceive a shift in phase (angle) of electromagnetic waves in the visible fraction of the spectrum?
Like, change in frequency is perceived as change in color; change in amplitude is perceived as change in intensity of light; would the human eye be able to detect a phase shift? Are eyes of any other animal(s) able to detect phase change?
In order to perceive phase you would have to be sensitive to very short periods of time. Then a phase shift would be perceptible as a delay in the arrival of the peak of the EM intensity.
But since our perception of light is integrated on the minimum time lapse we can distiguish, I think that phase is unperceptible.
@crackurbones As far as I know, phase of an individual wave shouldn't matter. However, if we allow multiple waves (of sound, light etc.) to interact and interfere, you do get noticeable changes, but that's besides the main point here.
@crackurbones
Some animals can see polarisation of light, but I don't think phase is a meaningful property in this context. If I just draw a sine wave on a piece of grid paper, its phase is undefined until I add axes showing where the y=0 crossing is in relation to the x=0 crossing.
Further, we very rarely see pure monochromatic light; we are mostly exposed to unsaturated tones composed of anywhere from several to infinitely many frequencies at varying intensities. We can't even tell what frequencies a white light comprises without special instruments (this is why we can substitute LED or CFL lighting for incandescent, despite having a very different spectra).