LIGHTREFLECTION, REFRACTION, AND ABSORPTION

The way light waves bounce and bend show details of objects around us

REFLECTION Bouncing waves Like a ball bounces back

REFRACTION bending waves Do NOT bounce back Helps us see Makes the rainbow

Not all waves bend or bounce, some stick

ABSORPTION

Light waves that get taken up or absorbed

Opaque objects you can not see through, like wood or wool, can absorb light waves

Absorption helps us see color

3 kinds of Mirrors reflect light waves

I. PLANEI. Flat mirrors in our

bathroomII. Reflection is the same size

II. CONVEXI. Not the same sizeII. View is wider—you can

see moreIII. The mirrors on our cars

III. CONCAVEI. Curved like a spoonII. Can look upside-down,

right-side up, smaller or bigger

III. Like a funhouse mirror

Telescopes use mirrors to see far distances

Telescopes

Reflect or refract light

Use plane and concave mirrors

The bigger and more mirrors the larger the image the further away to

see

Why do things look different in the water?

REFRACTION—bending light

Light travels through air very fast—faster than water

Light travels through water faster than through glass

As light goes through material it slows down and bends

In order to see, our eyes need to use refraction

Our eyes focuses light to form and see objects

Light enters in a straight line

The lens bends the light rays and focuses in the retina to make images

Light is made of many colors—I can only see the visible

spectrum. White light is made up of

the colors of the rainbow.

Red bends the least

Violet bends the most

In order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

Other colors we see come from mixing the visible spectrum colors

The ABSORPTION of light is very important to how we see things.

Objects with colors absorb some light and reflect others

The color of light the object reflects is the color we see

In summary, I have learned

Light can be reflected (like in mirrors),

Convex—made bigger Concave—changes size ,

shape or direction refracted (by water)

Makes it look like it doesn’t match up

absorbed (by objects) Other colors taken in,

color I see is reflected

I can see only the visible spectrum of colors from the rainbow—ROY G BIV

My eyes’ lenses use the refraction of light to see

Light travels slower through objects than air

Light travels very fast

Telescopes use plane and concave mirrors to see things far away

Light is like up and down waves

Manipulating Light by Darlene Stille

Reflection—I see

Refraction—it bends

Absorption—goes into

By Darlene Stille