PHYSICS C10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Refraction, Electric Field, Radiography
Document Summary
Invisible light: review of wave manipulations, diffraction, interference, reflection, refraction, dispersion. Dispersion of waves: dispersion shine white light through a prism. Because the index of refraction depends on wavelength, the speed of the light through the prism is different for each wavelength, and thus the degree of refraction is different for each wavelength. Red light, which has the largest wavelength, bends the least, and violet light, with the shortest wavelength, bends the most. Higher dispersion = greater difference in the amount by which different colors are refracted. Electromagnetic spectrum: called this because light is the oscillation of the electric and magnetic field (they do this because they feed on each other. Radiowaves from the very longest wavelength down to about 10-4 m: microwaves waves with roughly 1 cm wavelengths. Infrared typical wavelength about 10-100 microns (1 micron is roughly the size of a cell) Visible light very small portion of all light.
