![]() Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other waves such as sound waves and water waves also experience refraction. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium. In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. Other properties of light include interference, diffraction, polarisation, scattering, and dispersion.Not to be confused with Diffraction, the change in direction of a wave around an obstacle.Ī ray of light being refracted in a plastic block The apparent depth of objects submerged in water can be explained by refraction. Refraction is a property of light whereby a ray of light strikes the boundary between two media and moves from the first medium into the second, changing direction and speed in the process. Reflection is a property of light whereby a ray of light strikes the boundary between two media and stays in its original medium. The wave equation is given by c = f x λ, where λ is the wavelength of light while f is the frequency.The speed of light in free space c is 300 million metres per second (3.00 x 10 8 m/s ) and is the fastest speed of any object in the universe.Violet light has a wavelength of 380 nanometres, while red light at the other end of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum has a wavelength of 700 nanometres.The wavelength of a visible light wave determines its colour.Light is a wave and falls in the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum. ![]() For an illustration of this, see the diagram below. Reflection occurs when light that is travelling through a certain medium is incident onto a boundary between two media, and the light ‘bounces ’ off the boundary or changes direction upon striking this boundary and moves on in the original medium. Reflection is a property of wave motion that is exhibited by visible light. We have mentioned before that the colour of a rose is due to the reflection of visible light from the rose. These are two of the more important properties of light, which can be used to make observations of distant objects in the universe. There are many properties of light waves, but we will discuss two in detail: reflection and refraction. This wavelength corresponds to the colour red. We know the frequency of the laser light and that the speed of light c is 3.00 x 10 8 m/s, so we can apply the wave equation:Ĭ = f λ λ = c f = 3. What is the wavelength of the red light that is emitted from a 4.6 x 10 14 Hz laser? The speed of light in free space, c, is 300 million metres per second (3.00 x 10 8 m/s), which is a constant and is essentially the speed limit of the universe that cannot be exceeded by any other object. It turns out that light not only has a speed but that its speed is the fastest in the universe. This means that light waves should be no different, and if light is in motion, it must have a speed. The speed of lightĪll travelling waves can essentially be thought of as energy-carrying oscillations in motion. Red light has a wavelength of about 700 nanometres (700 x 10 9 metres), while violet light at the opposite end of the electromagnetic spectrum has a wavelength of about 380 nanometres. White light, once dispersed, gives us all the colours in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, which is what you would see in a rainbow. White light is dispersed through a prism into all the colours in the visible spectrum, Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 We know this because light exhibits a property called dispersion when passing through a glass prism, as shown in the figure below. White light, like light from the sun, consists of all the wavelengths of visible light together. The word transverse is simply a reference to the fact that electric and magnetic fields are oscillating (waving), hence the word electromagnetic. It carries energy from one point to another, just as all travelling waves do. ![]() We can be more precise now and say that the nature of light is that of a transverse wave. This means that every time you view a beautiful red rose on a sunny day, your eyes perceive a reflection of red light from the rose, which has a wavelength of about 650 nm. Light waves can have different wavelengths, which determine the colour of visible light that is observed. The wavelength is the distance between any two successive points on a wave that are in phase (e.g., two successive crests or two successive troughs).
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