Light Vocabulary
What is white light?
The combination of all colors of the rainbow, which appears colorless to humans
What is a medium?
What happens when light hits an opaque object?
The opaque object stops the light and creates a shadow
White light contains what colors?
All the colors of the rainbow
What does sound need to travel?
A medium (substance)
What is a shadow?
A shadow is the absence of light
What is volume?
Volume refers to how loud or quiet a sound is
What happens when light hits a transparent object?
Light travels through transparent objects
What is the acronym to remember the order of colors in the rainbow?
ROY G BIV
What do vibrations have to do with sound?
Vibrations create sound, and send sound waves into the air so they can reach our ears
What does the visual light spectrum refer to? What is a type of light NOT on the visible light spectrum?
It refers to the part of the light spectrum that humans are able to see, ultraviolet and infrared light are not on the visible light spectrum
What is pitch?
Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is
What happens when you look in a concave versus a convex mirror?
Concave mirrors can make an image appear upside down, convex mirrors always show the image right side up
What does ROY G BIV stand for?
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
What are words that we can use to describe the characteristics of sound?
Volume (loud/soft), pitch (high/low)
What is refraction?
It is the bending of light, caused by the light hitting a transparent surface and changing speed
What are vocal chords?
Vocal chords are bands inside of your voice box that vibrate to produce sound
What is a plane mirror?
A plane mirror is a flat, regular mirror
Which color lights have the highest and lowest energy?
Highest energy is violet, lowest energy is red
What did Samuel Morse invent, and what could it do?
The telegraph, it could send sounds like dots and dashes, one message at a time
Concave and convex are antonyms... what do they both mean?
Concave means caved in or curved inward, convex means curved outward or bulged out
What is the telegraph?
A telegraph is a device that can send messages over long distances
Explain how refraction works, and give an example.
Refraction works by light bending as it moves from one material, like air, to another, like a transparent cup of water, because this makes the light change speed. An example would be a straw appearing to be bent or cut as light shines through the cup of water.
If someone is wearing a red sweater, what colors is their sweater absorbing, and what color is their sweater reflecting?
A red sweater would reflect red, and absorb all the other colors, that is how we see the sweater as red
How did Alexander Graham Bell (along with Thomas Watson) improve on the telegraph?
Aleck made a discovery that ended up inventing the telephone