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Physics Vocabulary

Quiz yourself by thinking what should be in each of the black spaces below before clicking on it to display the answer.
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Term
Definition
continuous spectrum   a luminous object produces all produces all possible wavelengths of visible light.  
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spectrograph   a photograph, printout, or other display of a spectrum produced by a spectroscope  
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light-year   the distance light travels in a year, approximately 9.5 trillion kilometers  
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intensity   a light source's power, the rate at which it radiates energy  
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candela   the unit of light intensity  
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inverse-square law   a situation encountered many times in physics  
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incandescence   the light produced by materials heated until they glow, it occurs when atoms and electrons rapidly vibrate with thermal energy  
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fluorescence   occurs when a substance radiates visible light as it absorbs a higher-energy source is removed  
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phosphorescence   emit visible light after the energy source is removed, watch dials and glow-in-the-dark stickers are examples  
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coherent light   extremely bright and has many uses in medicine,industry communications, and the military  
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cold light   produced from chemical reactions at temperatures far below those required for incandescence  
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primary hue   the basic color of light: red,yellow, orange,green  
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additive primary colors   red,blue,green  
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subtractive primary colors   cyan,yellow, and magenta  
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complementary color   subtractive primary colors  
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saturation   the brightness of a color  
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value   how dark or light the color appears  
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beam   made of lots of photons moving in the same direction  
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ray   a line with an arrowhead showing direction  
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diffuse reflection   reflection off the surface  
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specular reflections   reflection off a smooth surface  
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incident ray   the light ray approaches a reflective surface  
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reflected ray   the outgoing ray  
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law of reflection   when a light ray reflects off the surface, the angle of the incident ray, equals the angle of the incident ray  
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plane mirror   a standard bathroom mirror  
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virtual image   an image is seen in a position where no real objects exist  
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real image   formed when the rays of light from a source are made to converge or come together by a focusing optical device  
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convave mirror   the deepest point of the dished surface is the center of the mirror  
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principal optical axis   an imaginary line normal to the mirror's surface at this point  
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principal focus   when light rays fall on the mirror's surface, they reflect according to the law of reflection and converge on a point in the front of the mirror  
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focal point   converge to a point in the center of the mirror  
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focal length   the principal focus lies on the optical axis at a distance from the mirror's center  
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convex mirror   a mirror that cannot produce a real image that is also bulged outward  
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optical destiny   the speed of light in a material is related to the material's destiny  
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index of refraction   the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the material  
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total internal refraction   if the angle of incidence is increased  
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critical angle of incidence   the angle of incidence where a phenomena begins  
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fiber optics   an important growing field of technology with diverse applications  
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light depression   a beam of light enters a piece of glass, no matter what it's shaped, some depression takes place  
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lens   a disk of optically clear material that refracts light to produce a real or virtual image  
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converging lens   collects the incoming rays of light and focuses them at a point  
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diverging lens   spreads the rays of light apart similar to a convex mirror  
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meniscus lenses   eyeglass lenses, both sides are curved in the same direction  
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Created by: Luke Meterko
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