Extra Questions for
Module 2 -- Basic Theory of Light




This worksheet is one of the very few in the theory course that will be all "short answer".  My recommendation to you for this one:  Get out a clean sheet of notebook paper.  [Read that "several sheets . . . "]  Write out the questions and your answers.  Then go back to the lessons and to the notes that you took while you were reading the lessons, and compare your answers to the lecture.  Make sure that what you wrote has the same meaning as what was in the lecture.

What?  You did not take notes?  Then, the first part of the worksheet is for you to read through the lesson again and TAKE NOTES just as if you were in my lecture.  Because, I promise you, the best students in my classroom, who know perfectly well that the lectures are on the Internet, take notes during my class.

  1. DEFINE
    1. amplitude of a wave
    2. beam [of light]
    3. constructive interference
    4. destructive interference
    5. diffraction
    6. frequency of a wave
    7. longitudinal wave
    8. negative vergence
    9. optical infinity
    10. pencil [when discussing rays]
    11. photon
    12. positive vergence
    13. ray
    14. transverse wave
    15. refraction
    16. speed of a wave of the electromagnetic spectrum
    17. vergence
    18. wavelength
    19. zero vergence


  2. List the major categories of the electromagnetic spectrum:
    1. in order from high energy to low energy;
    2. in order from low frequency to high frequency
    3. in order from short wavelength to long wavelength.

  3. List the major colors of the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum:
    1. in order from high energy to low energy;
    2. in order from low frequency to high frequency
    3. in order from short wavelength to long wavelength.


  4. How does VU light damage biological tissue like the eye?  What is UVA, UVB, UVC?  How do they differ, how does the damage that they do differ?

  5. How does IR damage biological tissues?  What common effect does IR have in daily life?

  6. How are wavelength, speed and frequency of a wave related?  [What is the formula?]  When a wave changes speed, what else changes?


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