Ch. 8 - Light and Optics

14% of MCAT Physics content

What is reflection?

The rebounding of light waves at the boundary of a medium.

State the law of reflection.

The incident angle equals the angle of reflection, measured from the normal.

What are concave mirrors?

Converging systems that produce real, inverted or virtual, upright images based on the object’s position relative to the focal point.

What are convex mirrors?

Diverging systems that only produce virtual, upright images.

What type of images do plane mirrors produce?

Virtual, upright images that are the same size as the object.

What is refraction?

The bending of light as it passes from one medium to another due to a change in speed.

What is Snell's Law?

n₁​sinθ_{1 ​}= n₂​sinθ_2​

• where n is the index of refraction

• shows the inverse relationship between the index of refraction and the sine of the angle of refraction.

What is total internal reflection?

When light cannot be refracted out of a medium and is reflected back inside

occurring when moving from a higher to lower index of refraction at a high incident angle.

What is the critical angle?

The minimum incident angle at which total internal reflection occurs.

What are convex lenses?

Converging systems that can produce real, inverted or virtual, upright images.

What are concave lenses?

Diverging systems that only produce virtual, upright images.

When do you use the lensmaker’s equation?

For lenses with non-negligible thickness.

What is diffraction?

The bending and spreading of light as it pass through a narrow slit

often producing a central light fringe surrounded by alternating light and dark fringes.

What does Young’s double-slit experiment demonstrate?

The constructive and destructive interference of light waves, resulting in minima (dark fringes) and maxima (bright fringes) of intensity

What is plane-polarized light?

Light where all electric fields have parallel orientation

Created by passing unpolarized light through a polarizer.

What is circularly polarized light?

Light where electric fields have equal intensity but rotate in direction

Created by exposing unpolarized light to special pigments or filters.

What are electromagnetic waves?

Transverse waves with oscillating electric and magnetic fields perpendicular to each other and the direction of propagation.

What does the electromagnetic spectrum represent?

The range of frequencies and wavelengths of electromagnetic waves.

List the EM spectrum from lowest to highest energy.

Radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.

What is the range of the visible spectrum?

Approximately 400 nm (violet) to 700 nm (red).