Final answer:
The best description of the relationship between visible light and the electromagnetic spectrum is that visible light is a narrow band within the electromagnetic spectrum, specifically spanning wavelengths from about 400 to 700 nanometers.
Step-by-step explanation:
The relationship between visible light and the electromagnetic spectrum can be understood by recognizing that visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Specifically, visible light comprises a narrow band within the broader electromagnetic spectrum, which includes a range of other types of electromagnetic radiation such as gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, infrared, and radio waves.
Visible light's wavelengths range from approximately 400 to 700 nanometers (nm), characterized by the colors we can see in a prism-caused rainbow: violet (shortest wavelength) through red (longest wavelength). Relative to the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the visible spectrum is quite limited; most of the spectrum consists of waves outside the visible range, hence cannot be seen by the human eye.
The electromagnetic spectrum is the term used to describe the entire range of wavelengths and frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. Visible light falls specifically between the infrared and ultraviolet bands of the spectrum and is uniquely important to us because it is the range of light that human vision is adapted to perceive and is the primary form of light that reaches Earth's surface.