2: Background

Telescopes and microscopes are great examples of what happens when light bends. Everything we see is because light bounces. We call bending refraction, and bouncing reflection. Light bends (refracts) when it passes from one thing to another, such as air to water, because it doesn’t travel at the same speed through different things. When light won’t penetrate something at all, it bounces off (reflects). Many times some colors (wavelengths) will pass into something and others will bounce off, so we see colors. A red shirt is red because only the red color (wavelengths) bounce off, and green leaves are green because only the green bounces off. Different wavelengths bend somewhat differently when they pass from one thing to another, which is why we see rainbows. Continue to learn more about reflection and refraction