PROPAGATION OF LIGHT

• REFRACTION - occurs due to the bending of light waves as they pass from one medium to another.
• THE PARTICLE MODEL OF LIGHT- also known as the corpuscular theory of light, describes light as a stream of particles that bounce off surfaces during reflection.
• THE SKY OFTEN APPEARS WHITE TO OUR EYES due to the scattering of sunlight by air molecules and tiny particles in the atmosphere. When sunlight enters Earth's atmosphere, it interacts with the gases and particles in the air. Shorter wavelengths of light, such as blue and violet, are scattered more strongly by the molecules in the atmosphere than longer wavelengths, such as red and yellow.
• OBJECTS APPEAR BLACK when they absorb all colors of light across the visible spectrum and reflect very little or no light back to our eyes. When an object absorbs all colors of light equally and reflects very little or no light, it appears black to our eyes. This is because our eyes perceive the absence of light as darkness or blackness.
• CONVEX MIRRORS - are considered diverging mirrors because of their outwardly curved shape. When light rays strike a convex mirror, they are reflected outward and diverge away from each other, spreading out over a wider area. The outward curvature of convex mirrors causes parallel incident light rays to diverge after reflection, regardless of their direction.
• LIGHT

  • Light is composed of alternating electric and magnetic fields that oscillate perpendicular to each other in the direction of propagation.
  • The wave model describes light as a continuous wave that travels through space, while the particle model explains light as discrete packets of energy called photons.
  • The wave model explains both reflection and refraction as the bending of light due to changes in its speed as it passes through different mediums, while the particle model describes them as the reflection and deflection of individual light particles.
• CONCAVE MIRRORS - When light rays from the object are incident on the concave mirror, they converge toward a focal point in front of the mirror. However, if the object is placed very far from the mirror, the light rays are nearly parallel by the time they reach the mirror, and after reflection, they appear to diverge from a point behind the mirror, creating a virtual image.
• LIGHT PARTICLES react upon reaching a smooth mirror surface, they bounce off at various points, changing their order in the beam. In specular reflection, the reflected light rays maintain their coherence and travel in the same direction as the incident rays, resulting in a clear, sharp image.