Sound and LightSection 4 EQ: How can the phenomena of reflection, refraction, interference, and diffraction be explained?

Sound and LightSection 4 Refraction of Light What happens to light when it passes from one medium to another medium?

Sound and LightSection Refraction of Light Light waves bend, or refract, when they pass from one transparent medium to another because the speed of light differs in each medium.

Sound and LightSection 4 Refraction

Sound and LightSection Refraction of Light, continued When light moves from a material in which its speed is higher to a material in which its speed is lower, the ray is bent toward the normal.

Sound and LightSection Refraction of Light, continued If light moves from a material in which its speed is lower to one in which its speed is higher, the ray is bent away from the normal.

Sound and LightSection Refraction of Light, continued Refraction makes objects appear to be in different positions.

Sound and LightSection 4 Refraction

Sound and LightSection 4 Lenses What happens when light passes through a lens?

Sound and LightSection Lenses lens: a transparent object with a curved surface that refracts light waves such that they converge or diverge to create an image

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued A converging lens bends light inward creating either a virtual image or a real image..

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued A diverging lens bends light outward creating a virtual image.

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued Magnifying glasses in microscopes and refracting telescopes are examples of converging lenses.

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued By adjusting the height of the lens, you can focus the light rays together into a small area, called the focal point.

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued In the eye light first enters the cornea, then the pupil, then the lens, and then forms an image on the retina which contains light sensitive rods and cones.

Sound and LightSection Lenses, continued Muscles can adjust the curvature of the lens until an image is focused on the back layer of the eye, the retina.

Sound and LightSection 4 The Eye

Sound and LightSection 4 Visual Concept: Parts of the Human Eye

Sound and LightSection 4 Dispersion and Prisms How can a prism separate white light into colors?

Sound and LightSection Dispersion and Prisms A prism can separate the colors of light because the speeds of light waves traveling through the medium depend on the wavelengths of light.

Sound and LightSection Dispersion and Prisms prism: in optics, a system that consists of two or more plane surfaces of a transparent solid at an angle with each other

Sound and LightSection Dispersion and Prisms, continued Shorter wavelengths travel slower and are bent or diffracted more than longer wavelengths that travel faster and are refracted less.

Sound and LightSection Dispersion and Prisms, continued dispersion: the process of separating a wave (such as white light) of different frequencies into its individual component waves (the different colors)