1: The Mysteries of Light
Why Is the Sky Blue?
- Light Scattering
- Scattering Occurs in Molecules in the Air
- Blue Light Is Scattered Strongly
- There Are Various Types of Scattering Phenomena
How Do Rainbows Form?
- Rainbows: Refraction of the Seven Colors of the Spectrum
- Refraction Depends on Light's Color and the Medium
- Water Droplets Reflect Refracted Light
- The Visible Angles of Rainbows Are Predetermined
Why Light Fades in the Bathroom
- There Are Two Types of Wave Diffraction
- Light Passing through a Hole Forms Ripples
- Light Passing through a Lens Becomes Fuzzy
Why Are Soap Bubbles So Beautiful?
- The Waveform Changes with Interference
- Overlapping Waves Interfere with One Another
- Testing to Confirm Light Interference
- You See Rainbows on Lenses and Greasy Surfaces
- Holography Uses Diffraction and Interference
Why Do Water Surfaces Shine?
- Sound
and Light Are Both Waves,
but They Work Very Differently - Light Polarizes because It Is a Transverse Wave
- Bees Understand the Sky's Polarization
Why Do Comets Have Tails?
- A Comet Has Two Types of Tail
- Light Exerts Pressure
- The Sun Pulls Space Dust
- Our Sense of Light Direction Changes
Light in the Natural World
The Earth, Space and Light
- Does Light Nurture Life?
- Does the Earth Have Windows?
- What Does Invisible Light Do?
- What If Light Does Nasty Things?
- Will the Earth Become a Greenhouse?
Light and Color
- Why Can We See Color?
- Does Light from Receding Objects Appear Reddish?
- What Is the Gravitational Lens Effect?
- Does Gravity Change the Color of Light?
Light and Units
- The Perpetually Constant Speed of Light
- Are Units of Length Related to Light?
- How Much Do Light Particles Weigh?
- Does Light Have Energy?
Light-Is It a Wave or a Particle?
- Light Is a Particle! (Sir Isaac Newton)
- Light Is a Wave! (Grimaldi and Huygens)
- Light Is Unequivocally a Wave! (Fresnel and Young)
- Light Is a Wave - an Electromagnetic Wave! (Maxwell)
- What Are Maxwell's Equations?
- What is Displacement Current?
- What Are Electromagnetic Waves and Electromagnetic Fields?
- What Is the Principle Behind Electromagnetic Wave Generation?
- How Fast Are Electromagnetic Waves?
- Light Is Also a Particle! (Einstein)
- What Is the Photoelectric Effect?
- What Is a Photon?
- Do Other Particles Besides Photons Become Waves?
2: Making Light
Sunlight
- The Sun Was Born 5 Billion Years Ago
- The Nuclear Fusion Energy of Our Sun Is Immense
- Yellow Light Is the Most Intense Wavelength in Sunlight
- The Human Eye Evolved by Adapting to the Sun
Incandescent and Fluorescent Lighting
- Incandescent Light Shines because of Heat
- Fluorescent Light Is more Complicated than It Looks
- Electrons and Atoms Collide within Fluorescent Lamps
- Light Sources Have a "Color Temperature"
Television and Liquid Crystal Displays
3: Applications of Light
Photographs
- Creating an Image of Scenery with the Light that Passes through a Tiny Hole
- A Chemical Change on Silver-halide Film Results in the Creation of an Image
- Color Film Uses Three Colors to Render Color
- Digital Cameras Record Light as Digital Data
Lenses
- Convex and Concave Lenses Used in Eyeglasses
- Concave
Lenses Are for the Nearsighted,
Convex for the Farsighted - Telephoto Lenses Are Combinations of Convex and Concave Lenses
- Lenses that Correct the Blurring of Colors
- Low-chromatic-aberration Glass
- Aspherical Lenses for Correcting Spherical Aberration
- Lenses that Make Use of the Diffraction of Light
- Single Lens Reflex (SLR) Camera Lenses that Use Laminated Diffractive Optical Elements
- A Huge Lens: the Subaru Telescope on the Summit of Mt.Mauna Kea in Hawaii
- Subaru's Primary Focus Camera Boasts Very Wide Field of View
Lens Coatings
- Light is Reflected from the Surface of a Lens
- How Do Coatings Boost Light Transmittance?
- Boosting Light Transmission to 99.9% with Multilayer Coatings
- Coating Technology for Filtering Light
CCD
- The Way Light Is Converted Into Electric Current
- Photodiodes Accumulate Electrical Charge
- CCDs Relay Electrical Charge Like Buckets of Water in a Bucket Line
CMOS Sensors
CDs and DVDs
- Data Is Recorded as Pits on the Inner Face of Discs
- Optical Pickups Use Lenses to Collect Reflected Laser Beams
- CD-Rs Record Data Through Color Change
- CD-RWs Record Data with Phase-Change Materials
- Doubling Data Storage Capacity with Blue Lasers
Optical fibers
- Trapping Light in a Core
- Lasers: the Best Light for Optical Fiber Communications
- Single Mode and Multimode
- Sending Light by Optical Fiber
Semiconductor Exposure Tools
4: Light and Its Future
Near-Field Light
- Light Is Blocked When Confronted with a Smaller Diameter Space Than Its Wavelength
- How "Dripping Light" is Created
- Using Near-Field Light
