chapter 8: light

Question 1

An indication that light is a wave is (choose all that are appropriate)

Answer 1

that it has dark bands in the diffraction pattern

Question 2

The colors of an oil slick indicates that

Answer 2

light is a wave

Question 3

The index of refraction measures

Answer 3

the speed of light

Question 4

Light waves are

Answer 4

transverse

Question 5

The resolution of a human eye is about

Answer 5

1/60 degree

Question 6

Which of the following has the lowest index of refraction?

Answer 6

air

Question 7

As the wavelength of light decreases, the frequency

Answer 7

increases

Question 8

In one millionth of a second, light will travel (caution: probably a trick question)

Answer 8

about 1000 feet

Question 9

A piece of glass is shaped like a pyramid. The side of the pyramid is tilted at 45 degrees with respect to the horizontal. A beam of light is inside the glass, moving horizontally. When it emerges from the tilted surface of the glass, it will be moving

Answer 9

in a direction that is tilted downward (so it will eventually hit the ground)

Question 10

A stop sign is bright when you shine the headlamps of your car on it. It most likely is covered with

Answer 10

small glass spheres

Question 11

Diamonds sparkle in many colors because

Answer 11

light velocity depends on color

Question 12

Which of the following are retroreflections? Choose all that apply.

Answer 12

-bicycles
-human eyes
-stop signs
-animal eyes

Question 13

Two soap bubbles from the same soap appear to be different colors. They probably have

Answer 13

different thickness

Question 14

If c is the speed of light in vacuum, then the speed of light in glass is approximately

Answer 14

2/3 c

Question 15

Stealth bombers are undetected by radar, in part because

Answer 15

of the absence of corner reflectors

Question 16

Rainbows show different colors because

Answer 16

in water, different frequencies have different velocities

Question 17

Which of the following is polarized?

Answer 17

blue sky light

Question 18

A fiber can send much more information per second that a wire because

Answer 18

light has a very high frequency

Question 19

Which color of light would give the highest number of bits per second in fiber?

Answer 19

blue

Question 20

Shannon is famous for having invented or discovered (among other things)

Answer 20

the bit

Question 21

The human eye has cones that detect

Answer 21

RGB

Question 22

People squint to see better because squinting

Answer 22

reduces the blur size

Question 23

Old people need reading glasses because their

Answer 23

lenses become less flexible

Question 24

Red-eye in photographs comes from

Answer 24

light of the flash reflecting off the retina (the back of the eye)

Question 25

Red-eye demonstrates that

Answer 25

the eye is a retroreflector

Question 26

Your eye has

Answer 26

two lenses-the lens and the cornea

Question 27

Light is polarized when it bounces off (choose all that are correct)

Answer 27

-water -glass -air

Question 28

Sunglasses can help you see a fish underwater because

Answer 28

reflected light is polarized

Question 29

Polaroids are used fro 3-D movies because

Answer 29

they give a different image to each eye

Question 30

Stress in plastic can be detected by looking at

Answer 30

polarized light (cross polaroids)

Question 31

In the pinhole camera, more blurring occurs if

Answer 31

the hole is made very large (but not if it is very small)

Question 32

Holograms depend on the fact that light

Answer 32

is a wave

Question 33

A successful fisherman will throw the spear

Answer 33

below the fish image

Question 34

To make a spy satellite that can read a license plate, you would have to

Answer 34

use a larger mirror

Question 35

The wavelength of visible light is closest to the diameter of

Answer 35

a red blood cell

Question 36

The Keck telescope is "powerful" because

Answer 36

it has a bigger mirror to collect light

Question 37

When we say a man is color blind, we usually mean that

Answer 37

he can't distinguish red from green

Question 38

The Keck uses what to focus light?

Answer 38

mirror

Question 39

Light in a vacuum goes 1 foot every nanosecond (billionth of a second). In water, in one nanosecond it will go about

Answer 39

0.66 foot

Question 40

Presend-day 3-D movies make use of which technology?

Answer 40

polarizers

Question 41

A computer screen does not have spots that are colored

Answer 41

white

Question 42

For a good telescope (like Hubble) in geosynchronous orbit (HEO), a typical resolution is about

Answer 42

20 feet

Question 43

A major use of fiber optics is for

Answer 43

communication