Light

Abstract

After completing this chapter you should

• understand what sources and sensors of light are

• understand that light exhibits the properties of waves

• be able to explain reflection in a plane mirror

• be able to describe images

• understand the words ‘real’, ‘virtual’, ‘inverted’ and ‘laterally inverted’

• understand how a change of speed of light leads to its refraction on crossing a surface

• be able to describe dispersion of white light by a prism

• be able to explain the critical angle and total internal reflection in glass fibres

• understand how converging lenses refract light waves

• be able to construct the image position when light has been reflected at a plane mirror, or passed through a converging lens

• understand magnification of an image, and be able to measure or calculate its value.