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Optics
Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Lens | refracts incoming light rays |
| Mirror | reflects incoming light rays |
| Reflection | when light waves bounce off of a barrier/boundary between two different mediums |
| Image | where light rays converge, or appear to converge, to produce a "copy" of the original object |
| Focal Length | distance between the center of the lens or mirror and the focal point (f) |
| Focal Point | location through which light rays converge |
| Thin Lens Equation | (1/f) = (1/do) + (1/di) |
| Ray Diagram | used to determine where an image will form |
| Upright | vertical image |
| Inverted | upside down image |
| Reduced | smaller image |
| Enlarged | larger, magnified image |
| Real Image | when light rays converge to produce an inverted image that can be projected on to a screen |
| Virtual Image | when light rays appear to converge to produce an upright image that can not be projected on to a screen |
| Refraction | bending of a light wave as it enters a new medium at an angle; due to a change in velocity |
| Convex Lens | converging lens (thicker in the middle) that bends light rays inwards towards the far focal point |
| Magnification | size of an image relative to the size of the object creating it |
| Magnification Equation | image distance divided by object distance (m = di/do) |
| Concave Lens | diverging lens (thinner in the middle) that bends light rays away from the far focal point |
| Object | source of the light rays from which an image could form |
| Plane Mirror | flat mirror |
| Object Distance | how far an object is from the center of a lens or mirror (do) |
| Image Distance | how far an image is from the center of a lens or mirror (di) |
| Object Height | how tall an object is (ho) |
| Image Height | how tall an image is (hi) |
| Magnitude | size or amount (number) |