Light and Energy

Albert Einstein is our guest today on 'the Wizard's Show', and he was just about to tell us something very shocking and exposing. Parent's be warned, your children will want to hear this:

"Yes, thank you Wizard for your introduction. Hey, maybe you'll make it to the Jerry Springer show after all. Anyway, I was just about to say that light, like sound has a speed. Unlike sound however, light travels much, much faster. Sound travels at about 331m/s in air, whereas light travels close to 3 x 10^8m/s - a lot faster than sound. This is why you see a bolt of lightning before you hear it. Well, also like sound (a wave), light changes its speed in different mediums. Perhaps you've looked at a fish in a water bowl and noticed that when you put a fish net in to catch it, the net appears to be offset from the way the net looks like in air. Well, this is because light travels slower in water than it does in air. As a result, you get a bending effect. This bending is commonly called refraction. The amount of refraction light undergoes depends on the medium. Meaning, light will appear to bend differently in water than in chlorine liquid."

"Wow, that is some cool science Mr. Einstein. Now maybe you could tell use some more about the nature of light, like what do we see a rainbow after a rain fall?"

"Of course. As observing people, we might be tempted to think that light is yellow, or white (actually white) But from your art class days you might have learned that white was the combination of all colours in the world. This is true with light as well. Visible light consists of seven frequencies or colours of light. These are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and violet. Rain splits up the light into these seven colours and you end up with a rainbow. In fact, rain is not the only object that does this. Prisms also do the same job, only you can more easily see the break up of light."

"Fantastic! I know so much more. I have one more question for you Albert. But, we will ask you that in the next section."

To learn about the frequencies and different 'types' of light, please push 0 right now and an operator will be with you shortly…….. Just kidding. Just click below to learn!"

Summary

starNothing can travel faster than the speed of light

starLight can be slowed down by passing through 'optically dense' materials. This causes light to bend

Types of light

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