| A | B |
|---|
| laser | coherent (in phase) narrow beams of light of one frequency (color) |
| total internal reflection | occurs when light WITHIN a material tries to exit at greater than the critical angle; will be reflected back into the material; depends on the index of refraction |
| fiber optics | uses total internal reflection in tiny glass tubes to carry light and signals |
| optics | the study of how light behaves |
| converge | come together |
| diverge | spread apart |
| incident ray | ray that strikes an object |
| normal | line perpendicular to the to the surface of an object where a ray strikes it |
| angle of incidence | angle formed by incident ray and the normal |
| angle of reflection/refraction | angle formed by the reflected/refracted ray and the normal |
| focus/focal point | the place where all the light rays that come from an object meet to form an image |
| Law of Reflection | angle of incidence exactly equals angle of reflection |
| index of refraction | ratio of speed of light in a vacuum to its speed in a material |
| lens | transparent material that is used to bend light rays |
| concave mirror | curved inward |
| convex mirror | curved outward |
| concave lens | diverges; corrects for nearsightedness |
| convex lens | converges; corrects for farsightedness |
| focal length | distance from the center of a mirror/lens to the focal point |
| real image | an image formed by rays of light coming together on a smooth surface; inverted |
| virtual image | an image formed when light rays seem to come from a point other than where the object really exists |
| optical axis | normal to mirror or lens |
