Light Fundamentals
The particle that composes light.
What is a photon?
The type of reflection that involves scattering.
What is a diffuse reflection?
True or False: A positive (converging) lens can form both "real" and "virtual" images.
What is True?
The number of millimeters in one meter.
What is 1,000?
A primary use for fiber optics.
What is telecommunications or data transmission?
The speed of light in a vacuum.
What is 3 x 10^8 m/s?
The phenomenon that causes fringes to appear in an interferometer.
What is interference?
This type of lens has one convex surface and one concave surface.
What is a meniscus lens?
A laser emits light at a wavelength of 500 nanometers (nm); this is its wavelength in micrometers (µm).
What is 0.5 µm?
The purpose of an aperture in a photographic lens.
What is to control the amount of light entering the lens?
The color of visible light that has the shortest wavelength.
What is violet?
The law that allows us to calculate the angles of incidence and refraction when light passes between two different media.
What is Snell's Law?
The point at which parallel rays of light converge after passing through a convex lens.
What is the focal point?
The number of millimeters in one inch, a common conversion for optical components.
What is 25.4 mm?
The primary purpose of laser interlocks in an optics lab.
What is safety (to prevent accidental exposure by shutting down the laser if a door is opened, etc.)?
The relationship between light's wavelength and its energy.
What is an inverse relationship?
The term for the separation of light into its constituent wavelengths, as when a prism creates a rainbow.
What is dispersion?
The main cause of chromatic aberration in lenses.
What is dispersion?
The number of nanoseconds in one second.
What is one billion (10^9)?
The minimum distance between two objects in an image so that they can be seen separately.
What is resolution?
The law that states that light's energy can't be created or destroyed.
What is the Law of the Conservation of Energy?
The angle of incidence where light of a specific polarization is perfectly transmitted through a surface, with no reflection.
What is Brewster's angle?
An optical aberration in which the focal length of an optic is not the same for different meridians (x or y axis), causing some lines to appear clear while others are blurry.
What is astigmatism?
The approximate speed of light converted to kilometers per hour.
What is 1.08×10^9 km/hr?
What laser classes require the word "Caution?" according to the FDA?
What are Class II, and some Class 3R (IIIa) lasers?