Light Basics

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Important Info On Light

  • Light travels in straight lines 
  • Light is a transverse wave 
  • Light can travel through a vaccum unlike sound
  • Light travels at a speed of 300,000,000m/s
  • Light travels faster than sound, which explains why you see lighting before you hear thunder

Likely to be part of an exam question

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Reflection

The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. For example if the angle of reflection is 30 degrees then the angle of incidence is also 30 degrees.

Light reflects better of shiny surfaces, which is why you can't see yourselves on a brick wall. The light still obeys the law of reflection but scatters. Different parts of the wall point in different directions so the light reflects back in lots of different directions.

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Refraction

Light waves change speed when travelling through different densities, when light waves travel from a low density material to a high density material it slows down. On the other hand when light waves pass from a high density material to a low density material they speed up. 

Light bends away from the normal when travelling to through a high density and away from the normal, but when travelling through to a lower density it bends towards the normal.

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Colour

White Light= all colours of rainbow combined 

Black= absence of colour 

When light passes through a prism it splits into the rainbow. Red has the highest frequency and violet has the lowest. 

When you look at a red lipstick the lipstick is absorbing all of the colours but reflecting red.

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