Optics Introduction Introduction

Optics explains why oranges are orange.

We need more to arouse your interest? Ok, optics also explains what it takes to be invisible and why wearing black in the sun makes us hot (Temperature hot! Optics, unfortunately, does not provide the road map to George Clooney-esque hotness). Intrigued yet?

All of us have, at one point or another, used many of the concepts in this chapter, whether it was torturing a bug using a lens to focus sunlight or by shooting Aliens or popping balloons in a video game. Optics has been our friend all along, so there's no need to be intimidated by it now.

In a nutshell, optics is all about reflection, refraction, and transmission of light off, on, and through various mediums. And no, it's nothing like a car transmission. That's another course.

We will learn about different types of lenses and how they bend light. We'll learn how to predict the path of light as it moves from one object into another. And we'll learn how to stand relative to a mirror so that our image appears tiny and upside down.

This guide won't explain in detail how light can be both a particle and a wave at the same time, but most physicists believe that if you think you understand that, then you don't truly understand it. Confused about the particle/wave thing? We are, but luckily, this learning guide won't be confusing at all.