Figure 1.0 - Tux wearing a hat.
Here is a list of commonly used terms when talking about photonics, and their meanings:
- Defraction - When light bends around barriers or spreads through small gaps.
- LASER - stands for Light Amplification through Stimulated Emission of Radiation. A laser is basically a tight concentrated beam of light that constantly has the same wavelength.
- Longtitudal Wave - Sometimes called a compression wave, a type of wave where the individual particles of the medium the wave is traveling through, move backwards and forwards as the wave passes. An example of a longtitudal wave is sound.
- Normal - An imaginary line taken 90° from the boundary between two media. It is used as a reference point to measure the angle of incidence and the angle of reflected or refracted rays.
- Optical Fibre - Thin cylinder of glass or sometimes plastic, no thicker than a human hair, that light is able to be guided through. They can be used to transmit information from one place to another.
- Reflection - When light hits a surface and is bounced off in another direction.
- Refraction - When light bends as it travels between the boundary of two transparent media.
- Refractive Index - The refractive index of a medium is calculated by dividing the speed light travels through that medium by the speed of light in a vacuum. Ice has a refractive index of 1.31, while air has a refrative index of 1.000277
- Transverse Wave - A type of wave where the individual particles of the medium move up and down as the wave passes through. A transverse wave is drawn much like the blue squiggly line on the side and the top of this page.