09/04/2026, 19:00 OneNote
Week 1
Monday, March 09, 2026 5:00 PM
Light and it's nature
Light: entire electromagnetic radiation that includes gamma rays, radio waves,
microwaves, visible light and many more
• Visible light: Electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the
electromagnetic spectrum that can be perceived by a human eye
○ Red light carries less energy than blue light
Electromagnetic radiation: charged particle are electrically neutral with both a electric
and magnetic field which are perpendicular to each other
• Disturbed particles: oscillates (moves up and down) at the equilibrium position (also
called accelerating charged particle)
○ Causes oscillating electric and magnetic fields which impact each other
(oscillating electric field produces magnetic field and vice versa)
○ This change between electric and magnetic fields causes waves to form
Electromagnetic wave: carries energy which is stored in magnetic and electric fields
(energy that travels in the form of electric and magnetic fields)
• Different waves carry different amounts of electromagnetic energy
• All waves travel at the same speed in the same medium
Frequency: how many waves can pass a given point per second
Wavelength: the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase
on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, or troughs
As wavelength
increases,
frequency
decreases and
energy decreases
Dual nature of light
Light as a wave:
• Youngs experiment revealed how light is a wave by passing light through two splits
and seeing multiple lines on the screen
• If it wasn't a wave then the light should only show up directly proportional to the slit
• Light was noticed to add together to amplify or cancel each other out completely on
the screen proving light is a wave
Light as a particle
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• The photoelectric effect reveals that electrons eject from the surface of a metal
when light with high frequency shine on it
• The frequency has to be above the threshold to release electrons revealing that
light is a particle because the energy of individual photons is what causing the
release of electrons
• This is why red light can't eject electrons regardless of its intensity but green light
can
• Even if the red light is bright it doesn't do anything because it's like bringing 100
weak people to push past a strong person (the strong person won't move) but a
green dim light is like 1 strong person who can push past the strong individual
Light sources
Primary source:
• produces its own light so you can see it (creates its own light)
• Can have high temperature like the sun, candles, flame
• Can use electrical or chemical process to produce light like a lightbulb, TV
• Change another form of energy into light energy
○ Light bulbs (electrical to light energy)
○ Fire (chemical to light energy)
Secondary source:
• Reflects light from a primary source to your eye for you to see it
• Diffuse light in all directions like the moon, cinema screen
• The colour you see is because all other colour is absorbed while only that colour is
reflected
○ A blue bowl absorbs all other colours and reflects blue allowing us to see a
'blue' bowl
○ A black object absorbs all colours so it appears black
○ A white object reflects all colours so it appears white
Additive mix: creating a new colour by adding one wavelength to another set of
wavelengths
• Lights of different wavelengths mix and our eyes see the average of the incoming
light
• Primary additive colours: red, green, blue (mixing primary colours gives white)
Subtractive mixing: creating a new colour by the removal of
wavelengths from a light through absorption
• Pigments, paints or dyes mix causing us to see the colour that isn't absorbed by
both colours
• Wavelengths are deleted from what we see because each paint will absorb some
wavelengths that the other paint reflects causing a lesser number of wavelengths.
• Primary pigments : red, yellow, blue (can't be produced by combining pigments)
• Modern primary: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black
○ Mixing all primary pigments creates black
• If no wavelength present = no wavelength reflected = black.
If red is absorbed
by the pigments,
then both green
and blue is
reflected and this
appears as cyan
Light as a wave
Wave: a propagation of disturbance that travels from one location to another location
• Some waves require a medium (the material the wave passes through like air, glass etc)
while others can travel in an empty space (called vacuum)
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• It is the disturbance (energy) that travels not the particles (they stay in their spots) while
the energy is moved through the wave
• When particles are disturbed in a medium, they move up and down which causes energy
to travel
Traverse wave: a wave in which particles of the medium move in a direction perpendicular to
the direction that the wave moves
• If the wave move left to right, the particles oscillates up and down
• Example include light waves (and is displayed as a wave shape)
Longitudinal wave: a wave in which particles of the medium move in
a direction parallel to the direction the wave moves
• Particle move side to side (same direction as wave) with each particle pushing on its
neighbouring particle to push the energy forward
• Example include sound waves (and is displayed as a horizontal line)
Electromagnetic wave: capable of transmitting its energy through a
Vacuum (ie. Light wave)
Mechanical wave: requires a medium in order to transport its energy
from one point to another (can't travel in a vacuum) - ie. Sound wave
Harmonic waves: the wave shape is regularly repeated (periodic waves)
• Represented using sine function (y= A*sin(ϕ)
• Y represents the vertical position of a particle at any given time
• A is the amplitude of the wave
• Phi circle is the phase of the wave (the angle inside the sine function)
• The x axis can be time or distance
• Equilibrium position: angle of 0 degrees
• 1 cycle: angle of 360 degrees or 0 degrees
Amplitude (A): The maximum distance moved by a wave measured from its equilibrium
position (measured in meters)
• Energy is amplitude squared
Phase (ϕ): A specific location within a given cycle of a periodic wave (measured in degrees or
radians)
Crest: The top or maximum of a wave (90 degrees)
Trough: The bottom or minimum of a wave (270 degrees)
Wavelength (λ): The distance covered when a wave completes a full cycle (meters)
Frequency (F) : the number of cycles completed by a wave per unit of time (seconds or Hertz
which is cycle pers second)
Period (T): Time taken for the wave to complete one cycle (measured in seconds)
• Equation: y = A*sin(ωt) where ω is angular frequency
Equations
1 cycle = 1T(s) = 1λ (m) = 360° = 2π
• Speed of light: 3x108 m/s
• Speed of light: 3 × 105 km/s
• Speed of light: 3x 1017 nm/s
Frequency invariance:
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• When light wave travels from vacuum to medium or one medium to another, its speed
decreases
• For speed to decrease the wavelength has decreased as well
• Frequency NEVER decreases, it stays constant
• It likes a swimmer switching from swimming in water to jelly, their energy put into
swimming stays the same but their speed decreases.
• The change in wavelength from vacuum to any other medium depends upon the refractive
index (n) of that medium and the wavelength of the light wave in vacuum
○ Refractive index: the density of the medium
▪ Calculated by speed of light in vacuum/ speed of light in that medium
▪ Higher the refractive index higher the density of medium
▪ Light slows down when it goes into a more denser substance
▪ Light speeds up when it goes into a less denser substance
○ Our eye is sensitive to frequency, not wavelength so we see the same colour
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