Physics Flashcards
What are some facts about light?
Light is a form of energy that can travel in a vacuum. It travels at a very high speed at about 3*10^8 m s^-1. Light travels in straight lines.
What are the kinds of light beams?
Parallel beam formed by parallel light rays, divergent beam formed by widening light rays, and convergent beam formed by narrowing light rays that cross at a point.
What are luminous and non-luminous objects?
Luminous objects produce their own light, while non-luminous objects do not produce their own light, and are only visible when there is light shining on them.
What are the shapes of the cone of rays from an object near, far, and very distant from us respectively?
near objects: divergent
far objects: less divergent
very distant objects: parallel
What are the incident ray, the reflected ray, the normal, and angle of incidence, and the angle of reflection when a ray of light bounces of a plane mirror?
incident ray: the light ray that approaches the mirror
reflected ray: the light ray that leaves the mirror after reflection
normal: an imaginary line that is perpendicular to the mirror at the point where the incident ray hits the mirror
angle of incidence: the angle between the incident ray and the normal
angle of reflection: the angel between the reflected ray and the normal
What are the laws of reflection?
The inident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal all lie on the same plane.
The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
What is regular reflection and diffuse reflection?
Reflection occurs when light hits a surface. If the surface is flat and smooth, the normals at different positions are parallel to each other. When parallel light rays fall on such a surface, the angles of incidence and reflection are all the same, and parallel rays and reflected in the same direction, resulting in regular reflection.
On the other hand, the normals at different points on a rough surface point at different directions. When parallel light rays fall on the surface, they are reflected towards different directions, resulting in diffuse reflection.
What is a virtual image when light is reflected in a plane mirror?
The light rays reflected by the mirror appear to come from a point behind the mirror. Since the rays do not actually come from the image, and the image cannot be projected on a screen, it is called a virtual image.
What are the relationships between the virtual image formed by a plane mirror and the real object?
The line joining the object and the image is perpendicularly bisected by the plane mirror.
What is the orientation of the image in a plane mirror?
The image is behind the mirror, virtual, at the same perpendicular distance from the mirror as the object is, of the same size of the object, and erect but laterally inverted.
What are the refracted ray and the angle of refraction?
refracted ray: the light ray that crosses the boundary after refraction
angle of refraction: the angle between the refracted ray and the normal
What are the laws of refraction and what is the Snell’s law?
When a ray of light passes from one medium to another, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is a constant: sini/sinr=constant (Snell’s law), and the incident ray, the refracted ray, and the normal all lie in the same plane.
The Snell’s law can also be restated as n1 sina1=n2 sina2 with n being the refractive index.
What is refractive index?
For the case when light travels from air to another medium, the constant ratio is called the refractive index of the medium. A medium with a larger refractive index is a optically denser medium, while a medium with a smaller refractive index is a optically less dense medium.
What is the speed of light in different mediums?
The refractive index of a medium is directly proportional to the speed of light, and it equals the ratio of the speed of light in air to that in the medium.
n=c/v, where c is the speed of light in air and v is the speed of light in the medium.
What is dispersion?
Dispersion is when white light passes through a prism and results in a colour spectrum consistng of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
What are some daily examples of refraction?
Objects appearing shallower in water: the apparent depth seen by the observer is shallower than the actual depth as light is refracted in water.
objects appearing broken in water
refraction in air: since hot air has a smaller refractive index than cold air, when we see an object through unstable hot air, it appears blurred and flickering. Air closer to the top of the atmosphere has a smaller refractive index, which causes refraction of the sun and the sun appearing to be higher.
What are the conditions needed for total internal reflection?
light travels from an optically denser medium to an optically less dense medium, and that the angle of incidence i is larger than the critical angle c.
How can the critical angle for total internal reflection be found?
n=1/sinC or C=sin^-1(1/n)
What are examples of total internal reflection?
using prisms as mirrors: produces quality clear images
diamonds: their high refractive index causes them to easily sparkle when cut at the right facets
optical fibres: light enters the opltical fibre and after total internal reflections, it emerges from the other end, which is ideal for carrying light signals through long distances
mirage: an illusion where the observer sees a wet and reflective surface ahead, but is actually the total internal reflection of the image of the sky
fish-eye view: a diver underwater can see everything above the water surface squeezed into a cone
What are convex and concave lens, and what are daily life examples of them?
Convex lens are lens that are thicker in the middle, while concave lens are lens that are thinner in the middle. An example of convex lens is a magnifying glass, and an example of concave lens is glasses.
How do convex and concave lens bend light respectively?
A convex lens converge parallel light rays to a point and bends light inwards; therefore, it is called a converging lens. On the other hand, a concave lens diverge parallel light rays from a point and bends light outwards; therefore, it is called a diverging lens. However, when a light ray passes through the centre of any lens, it does not change its direction.