Light Waves

    Light can be described as an electromagnetic wave, with frequencies ranging from 4 x 10¹⁴ Hz to 8 x 10¹⁴ Hz, and also as a particle. For this web page we will only be talking about the wavelike nature of light.

    Light waves are a convenient way to examine electromagnetic waves because these waves are visible and act similar to other electromagnetic waves when coming in contact with a medium. All electromagnetic waves can releft and can refract when coming in contact with a medium.

https://d2gne97vdumgn3.cloudfront.net/api/file/uYgeYVv2QgmN2KEcmJyC

Reflection is where the wave bounces off of the surface and refraction is where the wave goes through the surface. As a wave is reflected it will obey the law of reflection which states that the incidence angle is equal to the angle of reflection. When a wave is refracted it will obey Snell's law which is not as simple. This law depends on the incidence angle and the index of refraction of the two mediums. The index of refraction is a value that describes how an electromagnetic wave will propagate through a medium.

https://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m309-01a/chu/Fundamentals/snell01.gif

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    The fact that we can see is because of these light waves. What we see is actually the reflection of light off of a surface. When a light wave comes in contact with an object, lets say a red apple, the apple actually absorbs all the colors that are not red. So what we are seeing when looking at the apple is actually the red waves reflected back into our eyes. Our brain can then interperate these waves entering our eyes as an image.

http://www.univie.ac.at/geographie/fachdidaktik/FD/site/external_htmls/imagers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ems/visible.gif