Textbook Material to Read

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Chapter 25

25.1 The Ray Aspect of Light

25.2 The Law of Reflection

25.3 The Law of Refraction

25.4 Total Internal Reflection

25.5 Dispersion: The Rainbow and Prisms

Chapter 26

26.1 Physics of the Eye

26.2 Vision Correction

26.3 Color and Color Vision

26.4 Microscopes

Main Ideas

Geometric optics is the part of optics dealing with the ray aspect of light.

Speed of light in vacuum [latex]c=3*10^8[/latex] m/s.

Reflection and the Law of Reflection

The angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence.

Refraction

The changing of a light ray’s direction (loosely called bending) when it passes through variations in matter is called refraction.

Index of Refraction

[latex]n=\frac{c}{v}[/latex]

[latex]n[/latex] is the index of refraction, [latex]c[/latex] is the speed of light, [latex]v[/latex] is the observed speed of light in the material.

Dispersion

Dispersion is defined to be the spreading of white light into its full spectrum of wavelengths.

Image credit: public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Light_dispersion_conceptual_waves.gif

Additional Resources

OpenStax High School Physics, chapter 16 Mirrors and Lenses