Light - Reflection Flashcards
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light
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- Though visible light is a wave, the wavelengths are much, much smaller than we can detect with the human eye. For that reason, light doesn’t LOOK like a wave to us. Instead, it looks like it travels in straight lines, spreading out from the light source. Those lines are called “light rays.” By drawing the light rays coming off an object, we can figure out where the light goes and what happens to it, a subject called “geometric optics.”
- When light rays leave an object, they will keep traveling in a straight line until they run into something. When they encounter a new medium, one of three things (or a combination) can happen. They can be absorbed by the object; they can reflect back into the original medium; or, if the new medium is transparent like glass, they can enter or refract into the new medium.
- When light hits an object with a rough surface, like paper or clothing, it reflects in all directions; that is called a “diffuse reflection.” However, if the surface is shiny and smooth, like polished metal, then the light ray reflects at a very specific angle. Specifically, it will reflect at the same angle it came in at.
