Q&A for How to See Infrared Light

Humans produce heat - otherwise known as infrared radiation - which an infrared camera catches.

If you don't have a camera, any video recording device will do. Smartphones and video recorders, for example, can also work.

No. Your camera sees infrared light as purple because the light interacts with the camera sensor. The camera gets "confused" and shows it as white.

Infrared light is part of the light spectrum. Objects emit infrared light when they are warm, but not hot enough to radiate visible light. The warmer an object is, the more it emits infrared light.

Light particles actually move and behave as waves, like water or sound. The wavelengths humans can see range between red through yellow, green, blue, and purple with infrared and ultraviolet at the extreme ends. IR has a very subtle rolling wave, and UV has an extreme zigzag pattern to their wavelengths. Have you seen on TV when a car is in motion and the tires go forward, then seem to stand still before appearing to spin backwards? This is due to the frame rate of the film. Your device, unless you have super high DPI and refresh rate, is going to show it as bluish-purple. Top-end devices display it as a rapidly oscillating color shift through the whole spectrum.

When an object is not quite hot enough to radiate visible light, it will emit most of its energy as infrared waves. In other words, it will make heat as most of its energy. Note: That doesn't mean things that can give other electromagnetic waves can't produce infrared waves.