Light Vocab
The distance light travels in one year
What is a light-year?
Materials that transmit light
What are transparent materials?
Scientists now agree that light has a “dual nature”. What do they mean by this?
Light is a particle AND a wave
This type of light wave has the lowest frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum
What are radio waves?
Which theory of light is the photon more consistent with? The Wave Theory or The Particle Theory?
The Particle Theory!
A thin beam of light
What is a ray?
Materials that absorb light without remission and thus allow no light through them
What are opaque materials?
What did Michelson determine to be the speed of light?
299,920 km/s, commonly rounded to 300,00 km/s
This type of light wave has the second lowest frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum
What are microwaves?
How long does it take light to travel from the sun to Earth?
About 8 minutes
massless bundles of concentrated electromagnetic energy
what are photons?
This is formed where light rays cannot reach
What are shadows?
Why can't light pass through opaque materials?
Atoms & molecules in opaque materials vibrate randomly, producing kinetic energy that becomes heat
This type of light wave has the third lowest frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum, just lower than visible light
What is infrared light?
How does the role of inertia relate to the rate at which elastic charges can be forced into vibrations?
Low inertia permits rapid vibration
Electromagnetic waves of frequency lower than red visible light
What is infrared light?
A total shadow is called
What is an umbra?
What causes the formation of shadows when light shines on an object?
Some light rays are stopped, unable to pass through any part of the object that is opaque
This type of light wave has the second highest frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum, slightly higher than visible light
What are ultraviolet or UV waves>
What happens to the energy of light when it encounters an opaque material?
It's converted to thermal energy
Electromagnetic waves of frequencies higher than visible violet light
What is ultraviolet light?
A partial shadow is called
What is a penumbra?
What is the difference between polarized and non-polarized light?
Polarized light produces vibrations that occur in one plane (only horizontally or only vertically), while non-polarized light produces vibrations that occur in all planes (horizontally AND vertically)
This type of light wave has the highest frequency on the electromagnetic spectrum
What are gamma rays?
What are the seven colors visible in a rainbow? (ROYGBIV)
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet