PROPERTIES OF LIGHT

REFLECTION
- When light waves also bounce off from a reflecting surface
Law of Reflection
- States that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection as measured from the
normal line, which is the line drawn perpendicular to the surface of the mirror

Two kinds of reflection:

1. Specular (regular) reflection
- Occurs when the reflective surface is very smooth such as a mirror or a surface of calm water
2. Diffuse reflection
- Observed when a light hits a rough surface, resulting to the bouncing back of light waves in
different directions

Diffusion
- The dispersal of reflected light
 Diffused light gives us irregular images, this phenomenon is also beneficial as it allows us to regulate
the amount of light

REFRACTION
- The bending of light as it passes from one medium to another
 As light refracts, the velocity of the wave is altered, its wavelength increases and decreases, but its
frequency remains constant
 As an incident ray passes through different media, say, from air to diamond, the resulting ray bends.
Two angles are formed in this phenomenon, these angles are called angle of incidence and angle of
refraction

Dispersion
- The effect associated with the separation of light into colors by a prism

DIFFRACTION
-sometimes called scattering, is the bending of light as it passes around the edge of a barrier

INTERFERENCE
- This modification in the distribution of light energy due to superposition of two light waves
a) Constructive inference
- Occurs when two or more waves come together to form a larger and stronger wave, matching
their crests and troughs
 b) Destructive inference
- When two or more waves’ crests coincide with the waves’ troughs

POLARIZATION
- Is property of certain types of waves that describes the orientation of their vibrations
- Polarization of light can be classifies as linear, circular, elliptical

FORMATION OF IMAGES

 Images are formed when light strikes a reflecting surface such as a mirror or a lens

Real images
- Occur when light rays actually intersect at the image, making them appear inverted or upside
down
Virtual images
- Occur when light rays do not actually meet at the image, but because the eye projects light rays
backwards, we are tricked into seeing an image that is erect or right side up (upright)

Two Basic Types of Mirrors

Plane Mirrors
- Are the common, everyday flat mirrors that we see everywhere
- Consists of flat, two-dimensional surface that reflects the light coming from or reflecting off
another object

Law of Plane Mirrors

- States that “image is always the same distance behind the mirror as the object is in front of the
mirror”
Law of Reflection
- States that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection

Spherical Mirrors
- Is a second class mirror in the form of a slice of a spherical surface

Concave Mirror
- Mirror that is curved inward like the hollow inside of a sphere
Convex Mirror
- Mirror that is curved outward, like the outside of a sphere

a) Center of curvature (C)- the center of the circle of which the mirror represents a small arc
b) Focus (F)- the point where parallel light rays converge; the focus is always found on the inner part of
the “circle” of which the mirror is a small arc; the focus of a mirror is one-half the radius
c) Vertex (V) – the point where the mirror crosses the principal axis
d) Principal axis – a line drawn through the vertex, focus, and center of curvature of the mirror upon
which the object rests
e) focal length (f) – the distance from the focus to the vertex of the mirror
f) radius of curvature – the distance from the center of curvature to the vertex of the mirror; it
corresponds to the radius of the circle
Types of Lens
Converging Lens (Convex lens)
- lens that is thicker in the middle
Diverging Lens (Concave lens)
- lens that is thinner in the middle than the edges

LASER AND FIBER OPTICS

Laser (Light Amplification by stimulated emission of radiation)

- device that produces an intense beam of coherent monochromatic and unidirectional light
Max Planck
- hypothesized that the vibrating electrons in incandescent lights could only have energies
restricted to certain values
Charles Townes
- introduced the concept of laser
Optical Fiber
- is a thin, transparent fiber that is usually made of glass or plastic and is used for transmitting
light
- are usually thinner than human hair

OPTICAL DEVICES
Camera
- evolves from the Latin term meaning “dark chamber” and that is where the earlier cameras
were placed in
 in case of digital cameras, instead of using a film, images are recorded on a digital sensor array
known as a charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)
- creates a pixel map based on the electric charge generated when
photons slam into sensitive material (photoelectric effect)

Magnifying Glass
- or a hand lens is a bi-convex lens
- very simple form of microscope
- consists of two sides of glass that is thicker in the middle than the outer edges
- works by bending the light that passes through it, making the image appear bigger

Telescope
- is an optical device that has the ability to make faraway objects appear much closer
- consist of an objective or primary mirror
- has the ability to collect light is directly related to the diameter of the lens or mirror

Microscope
- an instrument that produces a clear magnified image of an object viewed through it
- not only to magnify objects but to resolve fine details of minute objects
- First compound microscope invented by Zacharias Janssen

HISTORY OF MAGNETISM

Hans Christian Oersted –found out that electricity and magnetism are related
 - This relationship stemmed from his observation that whenever he switched on an electric
current near a compass, the direction of the needle moved

Petrus Perigrinus (Pierre de Maricourt)

- Mapped the magnetic field of a lodestone with a compass and discovered that a magnet has
two magnetic poles: north and south poles

William Gilbert
- His monumental scientific study of magnetism, and proposed that Earth is a giant magnet

John Michell and Charles Augustin de Coulomb

- Studied the forces magnets can exert

Hans Christian Oersted, Andre-Marie Ampere, Dominique Arago and Michael Faraday
- Explored the close connections between electricity and magnetism

Faraday and Joseph Henry

- Discovered that a changing magnetic field produced a current in a coil of wire

James Clerk Maxwell

- Published a relatively complete explanation of electricity and magnetism (theory of
electromagnetism) and suggested that electromagnetic energy travels in waves

Pierre Curie
- Demonstrated that materials lose their magnetism above a certain temperature (Curie point)

Wilhelm Weber
- Developed practical methods for detecting and measuring the strength of a magnetic field

MAGNETIC FIELD AND FORCE

 When adjacent poles are not the same (north-south or south-north), they attract each other
 When adjacent poles are the same (north-north or south-south), they repel each other

ELECTROMAGNETIC INDUCTION
- the phenomenon in which electric current is generated by varying magnetic fields

Magnetic flux
- depends on the magnetic field in a region of space, such as the region inside a loop of wire

Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz

- summarized the relation between the changing flux through a coil and the polarity of the
induced EMF in what is now called Lenz’s Law: the polarity of an induced EMF is such that it
tends to produce a current which opposes the change in the magnetic flux that caused it