Optics Flashcards
(27 cards)
What is optics?
Optics is the branch of physics that studies light and its behaviour, including how light interacts with objects and how it is manipulated to create images or perform tasks like magnification.
Light:
Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye and travels in straight lines.
Wave:
A wave is a disturbance that transfers energy from one point to another without transferring matter.
Medium
any physical substance (air, water, dust) that acts as a carrier for the transmission of energy.
A real image
is produced by real rays and can be projected on a screen.
Reflection
Reflection occurs when light bounces off a surface and changes direction, but stays in the same medium.
Refraction
Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one transparent medium to another, due to a change in its speed.
Lenses
Lenses are transparent objects made of glass or plastic that refract (bend) light to form images.
Plane mirror
Mirror with a flat surface. Images in a plane mirror are always upright and virtual.
Spherical Mirrors
Concave and Convex lenses
Convex
A convex lens is thicker in the middle than at the edges and converges light rays to a focal point. They only make virtual images They bulge out. Ex. magnifying glass
Concave
A concave lens is thinner in the middle than at the edges and diverges light rays. Bulges outward. Ex. car mirror, make up mirror
Plane mirror
A straight
Focal Point
The focal point is the point at which light rays converge or from which they appear to diverge after passing through a lens.
Center of curvature:
The centre of curvature is the point located at the center of the sphere from which a curved mirror or lens is derived.
It’s the point at an equal distance from every point on the mirror or lens, and it defines the curvature of the surface. In simple terms, it’s the point that a mirror or lens would fit into perfectly if it were a part of a complete sphere.
Magnification
Magnification is the ratio of the size of an image produced by an optical system to the size of the object.
Optical Instruments
Optical instruments are devices that use lenses and mirrors to form images or magnify objects, such as microscopes and telescopes.
Dispersion
Dispersion is the separation of white light into its component colours (wavelengths) when it passes through a prism or a material with varying refractive indices for different wavelengths.
Incident ray
An incident ray is a ray of light that is pointing towards and striking a surface. An incident ray that is parallel to the principal axis will refract through the focal point.
Law of reflection
The angle of incidence is the same as the angle of reflection.
Index of refraction: the larger the index of refraction the smaller the critical angle.
Incandescent
light produced by heat ex. light bulb
Bioluminescence
light produced by living organisms ex. jellyfish
Chemiluminescence:
light produced by a chemical reaction ex. glow sticks
Phosphorescence
store energy + emit slowly ex. Glow-in-the-dark stickers
