Experience 3

Wave optics
Objectives
• Use mathematical representations of phenomena.
• Communicate cause and effect relationships related to
light diffraction, reflection, and refraction using multiple
formats, including diagrams, mathematical models, orally,
and in written text.
• Develop models to represent conditions that cause the
diffraction, reflection, or refraction of different wave types.
• Use data to show that wave speed changes as the
medium through which a wave travels changes.
• Use math to predict the relative change in the wave speed
of a wave when it moves from one medium to another.
• Use math to predict the relative size and location of an
image formed when light passes through converging and
diverging lenses.
 Ray model

• A ray model uses an arrow called a

ray to represent the direction the
wave is traveling.
• Rays are always drawn
perpendicular to the wave fronts.
 • The spreading and bending of ocean waves is an example of
a phenomenon called diffraction. Diffraction is the bending
of a wave around the edges of an opening or an obstacle.
Diffraction Wave front and ray models represent waves clearly, but
they do not help you explain diffraction.
Huygens’ Principle
• Huygens’ Principle Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens proposed an
idea that could explain diffraction. Huygens’ wave model is a model
that represents every point on a wave front as a source of
semicircular wavelets that spread out in the forward direction at the
speed of the wave. A new wave front is tangent to all of the wavelets.
You can use Huygens’ wave model to understand diffraction and other
wave phenomena.
Diffraction(cont’d)
• Why Can You Hear, but Not See, Around Corners? You can hear someone calling your name from around
a corner. You know that the sound waves must bend around the corner to get to your ears. Just as ocean waves
diffract through an opening, sound waves diffract around corners or through doorways.
• As you will discover later, light also behaves like a wave. However, you cannot see around corners. If water,
sound, and light all behave like waves, then why do you not see light diffract in everyday life? The answer
has to do with the tiny wavelength of light.