Sections
Key Terms
Key Terms
- aberration
- a distortion in an image produced by a lens
- angle of incidence
- the angle, with respect to the normal, at which a ray meets a boundary between media or a reflective surface
- angle of reflection
- the angle, with respect to the normal, at which a ray leaves a reflective surface
- angle of refraction
- the angle between the normal and the refracted ray
- central axis
- a line perpendicular to the center of a lens or mirror extending in both directions
- chromatic aberration
- an aberration related to color
- concave lens
- a lens that causes light rays to diverge from the central axis
- concave mirror
- a mirror with a reflective side that is curved inward
- converging lens
- a convex lens
- convex lens
- a lens that causes light rays to converge toward the central axis
- convex mirror
- a mirror with a reflective side that is curved outward
- critical angle
- an incident angle that produces an angle of refraction of 90°
- dispersion
- separation of white light into its component wavelengths
- diverging lens
- a concave lens
- focal length
- the distance from the focal point to the mirror
- focal point
- the point at which rays converge or appear to converge
- incident ray
- the incoming ray toward a medium boundary or a reflective surface
- index of refraction
- the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of light in a given material
- law of reflection
- the law that indicates the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence
- law of refraction
- the law that describes the relationship between refractive indices of materials on both sides of a boundary and the change in the path of light crossing the boundary, as given by the equation n1 sin = n2 sin
- ray
- light traveling in a straight line
- real image
- an optical image formed when light rays converge and pass through the image, producing an image that can be projected onto a screen
- refracted ray
- the light ray after it has been refracted
- Snell’s law
- the law of refraction expressed mathematically as
- total internal reflection
- reflection of light traveling through a medium with a large refractive index at a boundary of a medium with a low refractive index under conditions such that refraction cannot occur
- virtual image
- the point from which light rays appear to diverge without actually doing so