Reflections!

Today we learned about light and reflection. There are two types of reflection, specular and diffuse. Specular (regular) is when light is reflected off of a smooth surface, while diffuse is when it is reflected off of a rough surface. Some specular items include mirrors and smooth bodies of water. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection so ϑi=ϑr.All the angles are relative to the normal. Some examples of a diffuse surface are paper, cloth, or asphalt. 

Here's a venn diagram of the three primary colors of white light and their mixtures!

Complimentary colors are two colors that when put together, they make white. So for example the complimentary of blue would be yellow. In class we did a lot with the color projectors so for example, there were the words Red, Green, Blue, and Black written in their matching colors, and when the projector shined specific color light on the board there were different results. The red cancelled out with the projected light, but the green shone when in green light because the light needs to be the same frequency to fully blend in. When we were looking in the light spectrums we compared the light in the classroom to the sun's rays outside. The colors were more blended and stronger than indoors.

We used the equation v=fλ to solve for frequencies, wavelength, and velocities of light using 3x10^8 m/s as the speed of light! To find the distance of a light year, we could use the equation d=vt and plug in the speed of light for velocity and convert our time to seconds then multiply. 


Onto more reflection! While doing our lab with the light thingies, we could see the reflection of light rays when directed by different types of mirrors such as a flat one, a concave one, and a convex one. Concave is when it bends inwards and convex is when it bends outwards. When light rays are reflected from a concave mirror, they create a focal point where all the rays meet. Unlike concave, convex mirrors send the rays outwards where they will never collide with each other. The flat mirror caused the reflection to move in a direction with the same angle as it was bent at. Light bounces off of a source so that our eyes can see them, if it is unable to get to the object, you can't see the light reflected off of it!