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Apr 23, 2013 · Light waves want to travel in straight lines, but when they run into an object, they diffract, or bend slightly around the edge. This makes your eye see the object get gradually darker until there is barely any light reaching it, on the side facing away from the light waves.
Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the eye. It travels as a transverse wave. Unlike a sound waves, light waves do not need a medium to pass through, they...
Learn about how light is transmitted through different materials and how to create ray diagrams to show light transmission with this guide for KS3 physics students aged 11-14 from BBC...
Electromagnetic waves can travel through a vacuum at the speed of light, v = c = 2.99792458 x 10 8 m/s. For example, light from distant stars travels through the vacuum of space and reaches Earth. Electromagnetic waves have some characteristics that are similar to mechanical waves; they are covered in more detail in Electromagnetic Waves ...
These waves of energy travel through the air, liquids or solids, before being received by people in our ears, interpreted by the brain where we add meaning and descriptions such as loud or soft, high or low. Colour and light are inseparable in physics.
We know that light is a wave based on how it behaves – it exhibits the same properties of other waves we have examined – it interferes with itself, it follows an inverse-square law for intensity (brightness), and so on.
For example, a plane wave is a light wave that travels through space with all of the wave crests and troughs aligned in straight lines. If we want to draw a plane wave, we can draw a line where the wave crests are, and note that they form parallel lines in space.
