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light a form of energy that travels in waves sources of light natural sources like the sun, the other stars, lightning, and artificial sources like electric light bulbs visible light the part of the spectrum of light that we can see and includes many colors of light What causes light? the release of energy from tiny particles of matter, when they gain energy they become excited and begin producing light we can see incandescent light the sun (natural light) and many light bulbs (artificial light) emit this kind of light produced from a hot object (burning gases and heated filaments) fluorescent light natural and artificial light from a relatively cooler object like a fluorescent lamp and a lightning bug the behavior of light energy light travels in a straight line until it hits an object, it may bounce off an object or reflect, it may pass through an object or refract, or it may enter the object or be absorbed absorbed taken in and not reflected or thrown back (some materials absorb certain colors of the visible spectrum while the remaining color that we see is reflected) reflected bounced or thrown back (smooth surfaces reflect light waves in one direction) scatter to reflect in many directions (rough surfaces reflect light but scatter it in many directions) refracted when light passes through different materials it changes speed and refracts or bends (this is what causes a pencil to look broken in a glass of water) transparent materials allow light to pass through without mixing or bouncing the light (clear glass or clear plastic) translucent materials let some light pass through but scatters the light so objects on the other side appear fuzzy and unclear (frosted glass and Mrs. Sczesny's big blue plastic tub on top of the storage cabinet) opaque materials block or reflect all light and keep it from passing through (your wooden desk, the brick walls) Isaac Newton's discovery about white light White light passing through a prism bends or refracts splitting the white light into visible colored light. White light is not the absence of colors, it is instead the presence of all visible colors! rainbow colors the colors that make up the visible spectrum of light (the colors in order of their wavelength spell out the acronym, Roy G. Biv) instruments to study light and its behavior lenses, prisms,telescopes, microscopes,lasers, mirrors concave lenses they curve inward and refract light to make things appear smaller convex lenses they curve outward and refract light to make things look larger Galileo Galilei He used a telescope to study planets and stars. His telescope used a convex lens and changed the way people thought about space. rainbows (light phenomena) They occur when light passes through raindrops (tiny prisms) refract the sun's light. optical Illusions (light phenomena) They trick the eye by showing the difference between what the brain expects and what the eye sees. shadows (light phenomena) They are caused by the absence of light. Since light travels in a straight line, when it hits an opaque object, the object blocks the light creating a shadow on the other side. nighttime One giant shadow! The opaque Earth blocks the sunlight so the parts of Earth turning away from the sun lie in this shadow.