Light
Paden Mecham
Howard Demars
Physics 1010
TR 10:00 am
Light is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as first and foremost
something that makes vision possible. Although it is a scientific entity, it is one of the
biggest blessings in our lives. I mean think about it, if we didnt have light, we couldnt
see, day or night. If the sun didnt give off light we wouldnt see in the day, and if the
moon didnt reflect the suns light we wouldnt see at night. Besides oxygen light is a
definite necessity to everyday life. Light has always been important to man. If it wasnt
important, why would Mr. Thomas Edison have failed so many times as he worked on
creating the light bulb? There are many different aspects of light, and I hope that I can
convey a few of them in a manner which is easy to understand. The different properties
that I hope to discuss are diffraction, reflection, refraction, and dispersion to name a few
of the properties.
Reflection is one of the basic properties of light. It is defined as the return of
light waves from a surface. When a light wave is reflected off of a surface, the angle
in which it hits the surface is the same angle in which it will reflect off of the surface. For
example, if you shine a light at a mirror at an angle of forty-five degrees the light will
bounce off (reflect) at the same forty-five-degree angle. This is why you can see the
light on the ceiling or the wall when you shine a flashlight in a darkened bathroom as a
child.
Refraction is another important basic principle of light. An everyday example of
refraction is that of a straw in a glass of water. When you look at the glass of water, you
see that the straw is bent from the surface of the water down. The reason the straw is
bent is because the light travels at different speed through the glass and air causing the
bending of the straw. Refraction is the directional change of light waves as they pass
through one instrument to another, thus the air and glass.
Light is also known as white light or visible light. Because light acts as a wave,
there are different wavelengths in the visible spectrum. When light is bent and we are
able to see the different wavelengths, this is called dispersion. We can see the
wavelengths base on the colors that we see. As a child in elementary school I
remember being taught about the rainbow with the colors red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo, and violet. I remember learning that we could see all of the colors, the
visible light spectrum, as the light passed through a prism or a droplet of water. As the
light passed through the prisms this separated the light to create the rainbow. The
process of separating the light is called dispersion. Each color of the spectrum of light
that we can see has a different wavelength. This is why we can see each color as it
comes out of the prism or the water droplets, as well as why we can see the white light
as all the visible light spectrum wavelengths hit our eyes.
Why is it that when the sun is directly above you, your shadow is directly beneath
you; whereas you can see your shadow much better when the sun is rising and setting?
As the light from the sun travels to the earth and then reaches you, it goes around you,
creating your shadow. This is because of the principle of diffraction. Diffraction is a
modification in which light undergoes especially in passing by the edges of opaque
bodies or through narrow openings and in which the rays appear to be deflected.
Because humans are solid matter the light rays from the sun cannot pass through us,
therefore they must bend around us. Another awesome example that I can think of is
the shadow of a tree. During the afternoon on a Saturday when I get to enjoy the light
outside, doing yardwork for my parents, the tree in our front yard creates a shadow. The
shadow is solid where the trunk is, but once it gets up to where the leaves of the
branches are, more light is coming through than at the base of the tree. Because the
size of the trunk and the leaves are different the distance the light has to bend is also
different. The smaller the object the less the light has to bend whereas the greater the
size of the object the more the light has to bend. Diffraction is directly proportional to the
objects it must maneuver around or through. For example if you have a solid window
where there are no panes but just one large sheet of glass, the light is able to pass
through very easily. But if you were to take a very old nineteenth century window, where
there was a wooden shutter on the outside, the light would have to travel and bend
around each slot in the shutter.
It amazes me that there are so many different properties and principles of light. It
has been studied for centuries, and I personally believe we do not understand its fullest
potential. As a child you think of things as being one dimensional, or only being in one
state. But as we grow up into adults we understand in a greater capacity that there are
multiple entities, principles, or practices that make up the one dimensional things we
understood as children. Light is a necessity to life, the greater knowledge we have of it
and the more we try to use it, the more enabled we will become. The better quality of life
we will have. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to make the jump to light
speed in a space craft!
Works Cited
"Diffraction of Light: Light Bending around an Object." Diffraction of Light: Light Bending
around an Object. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <[Link]
(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/mch/[Link]>.
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <[Link]
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <[Link]
Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <[Link]
"NASA Science." Wave Behaviors. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
<[Link]
"The Reflection and Refraction of Light." The Reflection and Refraction of Light. 27 July
1999. Web. 22 Apr. 2016. <[Link]
"Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction." Reflection, Refraction, and Diffraction. Web. 22
Apr. 2016. <[Link]
"Wavelike Behaviors of Light." Wavelike Behaviors of Light. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
<[Link]
