PHYSICAL SCIENCE Quarter II – Week 5 Light Phenomena

In this learning material, I learned a lot about light phenomena. I received enough
knowledge to use for my future studies. Because light is intangible, it can be considered a
complicated phenomenon, and its applications in everyday life are numerous. However, the
properties and behaviors of light have been widely explored by the use of simpler models of light
made utilizing wave fronts and rays.
A wave front can be defined as a surface that connects light that is produced from a
source simultaneously. "A thin beam of light that travels in a straight line" is what a ray is ("The
Reflection of Light," 2000, p. 1). By applying the described models, the properties of light can be
efficiently examined. Some of these features include the refraction of light and the reflection of
light.
Reflection and refraction have a lot of differences. One of the primary distinctions
between reflection and refraction is that refraction is defined as the bending of light, whereas
reflection is defined as the bouncing of light. Secondly, in reflection, the incident angle is equal
to reflected angle whereas in refraction; the incidence angle is not necessarily equal to the
refracted angle. The majority of reflection applications are based on the idea of light traveling
through air and being reflected off a surface, whereas the most of refraction applications are
based on the idea of light traveling within the material and being refracted. Thus in reflection,
light travels through air but in refraction, light passes through diverse mediums.
Another difference between the two is the fact that reflection is generally linked with
mirrors while its counterpart, refraction, is commonly connected with lens. Another distinction
between reflection and refraction is that in reflection, light travels at a constant speed, regardless
of frequency or wavelength, whereas in refraction, light's frequency and wavelength change, and
thus its speed varies as well.
The importance of light in one's life cannot be overstated. Although the study of light
dynamics can be perplexing at times, the refraction and reflection elements of light are fairly
basic and have a wide range of applications. As seen in the explanation above, refraction and
reflection have a number of features that distinguish them.
However, there are certain parallels between these two light occurrences. First of all, they
are useful in all sorts of waves, including mild waves. They also aid in the visibility of bodies in
the universe, as some reflect light from the sun while others twinkle due to differences in the
densities of atmospheric layers.