What kind of waves are there?

Light Waves
How does light work?

● Light is a wave!
● All light in a vacuum travels at speed c = 3 ✕ 108 m/s
● c = 300,000,000 m/s
How does light work?

● Light is a wave!
● All light in a vacuum travels at speed c = 3 ✕ 108 m/s
● c = 300,000,000 m/s

● Can light travel slower than this though?

How does light work?

● Light travels
slower and bends
in different
mediums (air,
water, etc…)
How does light work?

● Remember...

v = λf

● Our velocity is now c, and it stays constant if we don’t

change our medium:
c = λf
How does light work?

● Different
wavelengths
and
frequencies
are different
colors!
● Most light is
not visible
How does light work?
Visible Light

Red 620 nm – 780 nm

Orange 600 nm – 620 nm
Yellow 580 nm – 600 nm
Green 490 nm – 580 nm
Blue 450 nm – 490 nm
Violet 390 nm – 450 nm

Invisible Light
Radio waves 30 cm – 1000 km
Microwaves 1000 nm – 30 cm
Infrared 780 nm – 1000 nm
Ultraviolet (UV) 490 nm – 580 nm
X-rays 450 nm – 490 nm
Gamma rays 390 nm – 450 nm
Colors

● Most light given off is not just a single color

● Comprised of many colors
Color Bar Graphs

● If most of the light is a

single color, then the
object emanates that
color
Color Bar Graphs

● If the light is more

evenly spread among
all the colors, you get
white light
Color Line Graphs (Spectrograph)

● Intensity, or
brightness, of light can
be plotted against the
wavelength of light
(which tells us color)
Color Line Graphs (Spectrograph)

Remember...
Red 620 nm – 780 nm
Orange 600 nm – 620 nm
Yellow 580 nm – 600 nm
Green 490 nm – 580 nm
Blue 450 nm – 490 nm
Violet 390 nm – 450 nm
Color Line Graphs (Spectrograph)

Remember...
Red 620 nm – 780 nm
Orange 600 nm – 620 nm
Yellow 580 nm – 600 nm
Green 490 nm – 580 nm
Blue 450 nm – 490 nm
Violet 390 nm – 450 nm
Color Line Graphs (Spectrograph)

Remember...
Red 620 nm – 780 nm
Orange 600 nm – 620 nm
Yellow 580 nm – 600 nm
Green 490 nm – 580 nm
Blue 450 nm – 490 nm
Violet 390 nm – 450 nm
Sources

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/light2refractionandcol-141110125708-conversio
n-gate01/95/light-refraction-and-colour-mixing-2-638.jpg?cb=1415625050

https://munsell.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/increasing-energy-wavelength-
visible-light-graph.jpg