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Light
Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Electromagnetic Waves | transverse waves of changing electric and magnetic fields that do not require a medium to transport energy (a.k.a. light) |
| Medium | matter through which mechanical waves must travel |
| Vacuum | space where no particles of matter exist |
| Photons | particles of light |
| Diffraction | bending of a wave as it moves around an obstacle or passes through a narrow opening |
| Double Slit Experiment | demonstrates the wave nature of light via wave diffraction and interference |
| Constructive Interference | when two waves combine to make a wave with a larger amplitude (bright light band) |
| Destructive Interference | when two waves combine to make a wave with a smaller amplitude (dark band) |
| Fringes | dimmer bands to either side of the central bright light band in a diffraction pattern |
| Diffraction Pattern | bright and dark spots on a screen of constructive and destructive interference |
| Amplitude | wave height; also the intensity/strength of an EM wave |
| Frequency | number of waves per second (Hz); directly related to EM wave energy |
| Electromagnetic Spectrum | complete range of EM waves in order of increasing frequency from radio to gamma |
| Visible Spectrum | tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes can see |
| Color Spectrum | Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet (ROYGBIV) |
| White Light | mixture of all the colors in the visible spectrum |
| Prism | usually a piece of glass that separates white light into colors of the visible spectrum via refraction |
| Dispersion | separation of light into different colors |
| Refraction | bending of a wave as it enters a new medium at an angle; due to a change in velocity |
| Primary Colors | red, green, and blue light |
| Secondary Colors | yellow, magenta, and cyan |
| Spectroscope | device that uses a prism or diffraction grating to separate light into its color components |
| Diffraction Grating | device made of thousands of closely spaced slits through which light is passed to produce a color spectrum |
| Polarization | aligning of vibrations in a transverse wave, usually by filtering out waves of other directions |
| Snell's Law | n1sinθ1 = n2sinθ2 |
| Angle of Incidence | angle between the incident ray and the normal line |
| Angle of Refraction | angle between the refracted ray and the normal line |
| Index of Refraction | measure of the amount a ray of light bends when it passes from one medium to another |
| Normal Line | imaginary line drawn perpendicular to the surface of any boundary between two mediums |
| Light Speed | how fast light travels in a vacuum ( 3x10^8 m/s ) |
| Rod | type of cell in the eye that allows us to see intensity (light and dark) |
| Cone | type of cell in the eye that allows us to see colors |
| Spectral Composition | unique pattern in the light from a substance that helps identify the elements making it up (a.k.a. spectral lines) |
| Magnitude | size or amount (number) |
Created by:
john_bailey720
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