Color and Light Dispersion

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to color, refraction, light dispersion (prisms and rainbows), and lenses, based on the provided lecture notes.

Color

Depends on the frequency of light, ranging from red (lowest frequency) to violet (highest frequency). White light results from all colors grouped together.

Selective reflection

The process where objects absorb some light and reflect the rest, determining the color a non-luminous object appears.

Selective transmission

The process where the color of a transparent object depends on the color of the light it transmits.

Cone receptors

Three types of receptors in human eyes that perceive color, stimulated by different frequencies of light (low for red, mid for green, high for blue).

Additive primary colors

Red, green, and blue light; when combined equally, they produce white light.

Magenta

The color produced by mixing red and blue light (additive primary colors).

Yellow (additive)

The color produced by mixing red and green light (additive primary colors).

Cyan

The color produced by mixing blue and green light (additive primary colors).

Opposite colors

Pairs of colors that, when added together, result in white light (e.g., green and magenta, red and cyan, blue and yellow).

Refraction

The bending of light when it passes from one medium to another, caused by a change in the speed of light.

Refraction toward the normal

Occurs when light slows down as it passes from one medium to another (e.g., from air to water).

Refraction away from the normal

Occurs when light speeds up as it passes from one medium to another (e.g., from water to air).

Optical illusions from refraction

Phenomena such as submerged objects appearing closer, atmospheric refraction causing celestial bodies to seem displaced, and mirages.

Dispersion

The process of separating white light into its component colors, arranged by frequency, as seen when light passes through a prism or diffraction grating.

Rainbows

A natural phenomenon resulting from the dispersion, refraction, and internal reflection of sunlight by water droplets in the atmosphere.

Primary rainbow

Formed by one internal reflection within raindrops, with red at the top and violet at the bottom.

Secondary rainbow

Fainter than the primary rainbow, caused by two internal reflections within raindrops, and has its colors reversed (violet at the top, red at the bottom).

Converging lens

A lens that refracts incoming parallel light rays to meet at a single focal point.

Diverging lens

A lens that refracts incoming parallel light rays in such a way that the extended rays appear to originate from a focal point in front of the lens.