AP Notes, Outlines, Study Guides, Vocabulary, Practice Exams and more!

Physics Light Unit Flashcards

Terms : Hide Images
796927365Ray Model of LightLight travels in straight lines, it can only be changed when there is an obstruction in its path, Light behaves like a wave, Light is made up of photons
796927366Luminous SourceAn object that emits light
796927367Illuminated SourceAn object that reflects light
796927368OpaqueMedia that do not transmit light, but reflect light
796927369TransparentMedia that transmit light
796927370Translucentmedia that transmit light, but do not permit objects to be seen clearly through them
796927371Speed of lighttravels at 300,000 kilometers per second
796927372Law of ReflectionLight gets reflected from a surface at the same angle it hits it.
796927373Specular reflectionThe light only reflects in one direction
796927374Diffuse ReflectionThe light is scattered in different directions
796927375WhiteA mixture of the three primary colors
796927376Primary ColorsRed, Blue, Green
796927377Secondary ColorsMagenta, Cyan, Yellow (the combination of two primary colors mixed together)
796927378Complementary colorsBlue and yellow, red and Cyan, Green and magenta (two colors that can be combined to make white)
796927379Color scaleRed is the least frequent, violet is the most frequent
796927380Dispersionthe amount an electromagnetic wave refracts while traveling through a medium
796927381focal pointthe point at which initially different parraell rays of light meet after passing through a convex lens, or reflecting from a concave
796927382focal lengthis a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light
796927383Total internal reflectionWhen exceeding the critical angle, for that material, the ray will reflect internally within the material
796927384RefractionThe process of speed change while traveling through a different medium.
796927385Photoelectric EffectWhen light incident on certain metallic surfaces causes electrons to be emitted from those surfaces
796927386Convex Mirrora mirror where the sides are bent outwards
796927387Concave Mirrora mirror where the sides are bent inwards
796927388Shadowan area where light is blocked
796927389Photona small quantity of light. A short packet of a wave
796927390electronnegatively charged particle in an atom
796927391Intensityhow photons per second are produced or absorbed
796927392Photo luminancephotometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction.

Need Help?

We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.

For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.

If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.

Need Notes?

While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!