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Unit 9: Light Page 22

Plexiglas 1.5100 By contrast, light from a regular

Diamond 2.4170 incandescent light bulb covers the
entire spectrum as well as scatters
This means if you place a Pyrex all over the room. (Which is good,
container inside a beaker of because could you light up a room

vegetable oil or Karo syrup, it will with a narrow beam of light?)
disappear (this also works for some
mineral oils). Note however that
the optical densities of liquids vary
with temperature and
concentration, and manufacturers
are not perfectly consistent when
they whip up a batch of this stuff,
so some adjustments are needed.

Not only can
you change the
shape of
objects by
A laser is a high-energy, highly-
bending light
focused beam of light.
(broken or
whole), but How Does a Laser Work?
you can also
change the size. Magnifying lenses, Think of small kids on sugar. When
you add energy to these atoms
telescopes, and microscopes use
(giving sugar to the kids), they
this idea to make objects appear
really get excited and bounce all
different sizes.
over the place. When the atoms
Lasers relax back down to their “normal”
state, they emit a photon (a light
The word "LASER" stands for Light
particle). Think of the kids as they
Amplification by Stimulated
are coming down from their sugar
Emission of Radiation. A laser is
high, all collapsed on the couch, a
an optical light source that emits a
lot less energetic than they were a
concentrated beam of visible light.
minute ago.
Lasers are usually monochromatic
– the light that shoots out is A laser controls the way energized
usually one wavelength and color, atoms release photons. Imagine
and is in a narrow beam. giving only half of the kids sugar

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