How Does Light Travel?
Light is a type of energy wave and travels in a straight line at speeds of 3 x 108 ms. It is possible for light to change speed and/or direction because of reflection or refraction. Human beings can not see all sources of light and visible light is a very small section on the electromagnetic spectrum which is ranging from Gamma Rays (highest energy light) to Radio Waves which are the lowest energy light.
Different types of light have different wave lengths and the human eye has a small lense which can only collect small amounts of light.
Light is emitted in a uniform medium meaning that is travels in a straight line which allows is to judge the distance. It is made of Photons, which because of its weird nature as a force carrier called a boson, have no mass. However it is still capable of being reflected, absorbed or refracted if it comes in contact with a medium. This is why the speed of light may vary when it is between out atmosphere and space. Light travels in a 'dual wave-particle like motion' and this means it is both a wave and a particle. An example of this is when you are looking at the ocean from a high distance above and you can only see waved but not one individual wave. as you come closer, you start to notice a surfer on a board who is riding a wave. The surfer is a specific point (particle) that moves in a wave pattern. The wave can change size which gives us the different colours whilst there is still a particle portion there.
Light is emitted in a uniform medium meaning that is travels in a straight line which allows is to judge the distance. It is made of Photons, which because of its weird nature as a force carrier called a boson, have no mass. However it is still capable of being reflected, absorbed or refracted if it comes in contact with a medium. This is why the speed of light may vary when it is between out atmosphere and space. Light travels in a 'dual wave-particle like motion' and this means it is both a wave and a particle. An example of this is when you are looking at the ocean from a high distance above and you can only see waved but not one individual wave. as you come closer, you start to notice a surfer on a board who is riding a wave. The surfer is a specific point (particle) that moves in a wave pattern. The wave can change size which gives us the different colours whilst there is still a particle portion there.
Colours
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/0/5/13056184/5320777.jpg)
The visible light colours - 0.4 to 0.7 are;
The two colour that have 0.4 are Violet and Blue. The two colours that have 0.7 are Orange and Red. The difference between 0.4 and 0.7 is the size of the waves.
- Violet
- Indigo
- Blue
- Green
- Yellow
- Orange
- Red
The two colour that have 0.4 are Violet and Blue. The two colours that have 0.7 are Orange and Red. The difference between 0.4 and 0.7 is the size of the waves.
How is light Reflected?
There are three ways that light can be reflected, one of the ways is Diffuse reflection. This is when energy from light waves are kept but the image gets lost. This is due mainly to the fact of a bumpy surface that may often appear smooth to the human eye. The bumps will catch light and then prevent anything from being reflected. A perfect example of this would be a wall made of brick or wood. The light is hitting the wall but being reflected at hundreds of different angles which prevents it from combining into a complete reflection. This is caused because even thought the wall appears to be smooth there is actually microscopic, sometimes even visible, grooves and bumps that will capture that light. In most cases the bumps on a wall will usually be the paint. The second way that light can be reflected is Refraction Reflection which is when the light hits a smooth surface and beams in a straight direction. The last possible way for light to reflect only occurs on extremely smooth surfaces such as mirrors and is called specular or normal reflection. The light will hit the smooth surface and since nothing is there trapping it, is easily reflected.
The Reflection of light has many laws involved which is a bit like everything in physics. The first law is that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. The incidence angle is where the light initially hits the surface and the reflection angle is where the light is reflected back. The second law states that the angle of incidence and angle of reflection will both lie in the same plane. This second law is what causes convex shapes mirrors to make us look/reflect, tall and skinny and the concave mirrors to reflect us as looking small and chubby. It all has something to do with the shape of the mirror that the light is being reflected off.
The Reflection of light has many laws involved which is a bit like everything in physics. The first law is that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. The incidence angle is where the light initially hits the surface and the reflection angle is where the light is reflected back. The second law states that the angle of incidence and angle of reflection will both lie in the same plane. This second law is what causes convex shapes mirrors to make us look/reflect, tall and skinny and the concave mirrors to reflect us as looking small and chubby. It all has something to do with the shape of the mirror that the light is being reflected off.