P6 2 Pointers

 Geometric Optics
 A plane mirror can produce an image using the law of reflection.
o The image formed by a plane mirror is always a virtual image.
o The apparent distance of the image formed is equal to the object's distance from the plane mirror.
 A spherical mirror can either be concave or convex.
o A defect known as the spherical aberration affects the sharpness of the image formed by a
concave mirror.
o A concave mirror can form a sharp image if paraxial approximation is applied.
o Paraxial approximation assumes that the reflection angle within the reflected rays is small
enough such that the length of the reflected ray becomes approximately equal to the focal length.
o A concave mirror can form a real image at its focus.
o A convex mirror can only produce virtual images and cannot produce real images.
 A refracting surface can form an image using the law of refraction.
o The image formed by a refracting surface would appear to be bent to an observer.

 A mirror is a reflective surface that does not allow the passage of light and instead bounces it off, thus
producing an image.
 Spherical mirrors can be concave or convex depending on which side is the reflective side.
 Concave mirrors are silvered on the inside of the sphere and convex mirrors are silvered on the
outside of the sphere.
 A lens is a piece of transparent material, could be glass or plastic, that is shaped so as to cause light
rays to bend in a specific way as they pass through it, whether that means making the rays converge to a
specific point or to diverge as if from a specific point.
 Lenses can be diverging or converging depending on how they bend the light rays that pass through it.
 A diverging or concave lens diverges rays of light that are traveling parallel to its principal axis.
Physically, this type of lens is thin near its center and thick at the upper and lower edges.
 Converging or convex lenses converge the light rays that are travelling parallel to the principal axis
towards its focal point. Physically, converging lenses are relatively thick across their middle and thin at
their upper and lower edges.
 An image generated by mirrors and lenses can either
be real or virtual, upright or inverted and magnified or reduced.
 A plane mirror is a mirror with a flat (planar) reflective surface.
 The image point P’ is located exactly opposite the object point P as far behind the mirror as the object
point is from the front of the mirror.
 The image generated for a plane mirror is virtual, upright, and neither magnified or reduced.
 Spherical mirrors are mirrors having the shape of a part of a spherical surface.
 The two types of spherical mirrors are convex and concave mirrors. A convex mirror has its reflective
surface curved outwards, while a concave mirror curves inwards.
 In determining the properties of both a concave and convex mirror, a graphical method can be used.
 Graphical method consists of constructing a ray diagram to find out where the principal rays intersect.
 At least two principal rays should be drawn to determine the location of an image using the graphical
method.
 The image properties formed by a concave mirror vary depending on the location of the object. Images
formed by a convex mirror are always virtual, upright, and smaller than the object.
 The analytical method is used to quantitatively determine the characteristics of an object and image, in
front and formed, using a spherical mirror.
 Lateral or transverse magnification refers to the ratio of the image height and the object height, and
the object distance and image distance.
 The mirror equation shows the relationship of the focal length to the object’s and image’s distance from
the mirror.
 Both equations can be used on objects and images formed in front of either a concave and convex mirror.
 Remember the following conventions when dealing with calculations related to mirrors:
o s > 0 for a real object, i.e., located on the incoming side of the mirror’s surface; otherwise, s < 0.
o s’ > 0 for a real image, i.e., located on the incoming side of the mirror’s’ surface; otherwise, s’ <
0.
o R > 0 when the center of curvature is located on the outgoing side of the surface; otherwise, R <
0.
o m > 0 when the image is upright/ erect; m < 0 when the image is inverted.
 A thin lens can be a converging lens or a diverging lens.
 A convex lens is called a converging lens.
 A concave lens is called a diverging lens.
 Principal rays are used to trace the image formed by an object through a thin lens.
 A convex lens can have 6 possible cases of image formed by different object positions with respect to the
lens.
 A concave lens can only form 1 image given any position of an object with respect to the lens.
 The analytical or mathematical method is essential to quantify the distance and size of images formed
by converging and diverging lenses.
 Lateral or transverse magnification refers to the ratio of the image height and the object height, and
the object distance and the image distance.
 The lens equation shows the quantitative relationship between the distance of the object, the distance of
the image, and the focal length. The magnification equation shows the ratio of the height of the image
and the height of the object. You may use these two equations to derive the distance and height of the
image, with the given values of s, y, and f for converging lenses.
 A diverging lens is also called a negative lens because its focal length is a negative quantity.

lens n, and the curvature radii 𝑅1 and 𝑅2 of the surfaces of the lens.
 The lensmaker’s equation shows the relationship among the focal length f, the refractive index of the

 Remember the following conventions when dealing with calculations related to lenses:
o s > 0 for a real object, i.e., located on the incoming side of the lens’ surface; otherwise, s < 0.
o s’ > 0 for a real image, i.e., located on the incoming side of the lens’ surface; otherwise, s’ < 0.
o R > 0 when the center of curvature is located on the outgoing side of the surface; otherwise, R < 0.
o m > 0 when the image is upright/ erect; m < 0 when the image is inverted.
 The human eye is one of the most familiar and common optical instruments.
 Nearsightedness or myopia is a condition where a nearsighted person cannot see images that are over
the near point of 25 cm. It is corrected using diverging lenses.
 Farsightedness or hyperopia is a condition where the near point of one’s eye is farther than the regular
25 cm. Converging lenses are used to correct farsightedness.
 Astigmatism is a condition where the cornea of the eye is not spherical. The usual shape of an astigmatic
eye is cylindrical with deformation. To correct this, ophthalmologists suggest using compensating
cylindrical glasses.
 The strength of a lens in diopter (D) is reciprocal of the focal length (f) in meters.
 Diffraction refers to the bending of light as it goes through an edge or aperture, thus forming a fuzzy
edge.
 When light is diffracted from a single thin slit, a slow increase, rather than a sudden one, in the intensity
of light occurs as it changes from dark to light.
 Longer wavelengths create more diffracted light.
 According to Huygen’s principle, each part of the wave front in the single slit creates wavelets similar to
rays that scatter in various directions.
 Huygens’ principle states that each point on the front of a wave generates wavelets that become
distributed forward, with a similar speed as the source wave.
 Huygens’ principle explains how light can propagate through an aperture, in ways that a particle view of
light cannot account for.
 Thomas Young’s double-slit experiment in 1801 set about crucial considerations of light as a wave.
 Interference refers to the overlapping of waves to combine either additively (constructively) or
subtractively (destructively) through a process called superposition.
 Pure constructive interference occurs when identical waves are in phase, i.e., from crest to crest or
trough to trough. Pure destructive interference happens when similar waves are out of phase, i.e.,
from crest to trough.
 When two waves are added, the wave that results has an amplitude whose value is either increased by
constructive interference, or decreased through destructive interference.
 Laser lights are an ideal source to display the real effects of interference.
 In both single- and double-slit diffraction, as the width of the slit a changes, so does the intensity
distribution.
 If the slit width is narrower than the wavelength, light will spread with no crests and troughs. As the slit
widens, diffraction becomes more apparent.
 A diffraction pattern consists of a central bright fringe called central maxima, which is surrounded by
bright and dark lines called maxima and minima, respectively.
 The interference pattern of double slits with width a separated by d is the interference pattern of two
point sources separated by d by the diffraction pattern of a single slit with width a.

equal to 𝜙, which is proportional to the difference in the lengths of their paths.

 When two sources of light waves are in phase, the waves arriving at point P differ in phase by a value

When two waves are in phase, 𝜙 = 0 and the electric-field amplitude 𝐸𝑃= 2E, where E denotes the
amplitude of the light wave from one source. When they are a half-cycle out of phase, 𝜙= πrad = 180° =


cos (𝜙/2) and 𝐸𝑃= 0.

 When two sinusoidal waves that have a phase shift but are of the same amplitude and frequency are
superposed, a sinusoidal wave of the same frequency and an amplitude between twice the individual
amplitudes and zero will be obtained.
 The wave number k is the reciprocal of the wavelength (k = 1/λ). It is the number of cycles per unit
distance. k is expressed in units of 1/distance, or 1/cm, 1/m, etc.
 The rainbow bands you see on soap bubbles or thin layers of oil atop water result from the interference of
light.
 Phase shift (measured in degrees or radians, and may be positive or negative) refers to the small
difference between two waves with the same period or frequency.
 Constructive interference happens in locations where 2t is an integer number of wavelengths, and a
bright region is observed. Destructive interference occurs on points where 2t is a half-integer number

When 𝑛𝑎>𝑛𝑏, the light wave will travel slower in the first material than in the second.
of wavelengths, and a dark region is observed.

Here, 𝐸𝑖 and 𝐸𝑟 have similar signs, and the phase shift of the reflected wave with respect to the incident


When 𝑛𝑎=𝑛𝑏, the amplitude 𝐸𝑟 of the reflected wave will be zero. There is no interface, and hence, no
wave is zero.

reflected wave.
 When 𝑛𝑎<𝑛𝑏, the light wave will travel faster in the first material than in the second. 𝐸𝑖 and 𝐸𝑟 have
opposite signs. The phase shift of the reflected wave with respect to the incident wave will be equal to π
rad (denoting half a cycle).
 Modern physics explains post-Newtonian physical concepts and is based on two of the most important
scientific discoveries of the 20th century: quantum mechanics and relativity.
 Relativity refers to the study of how various observers measure a similar event.
 Special relativity is concerned with objects moving with respect to an inertial frame of reference, or are
undergoing uniform motion (non-accelerating and non-rotating) relative to one another.
 The first postulate, also known as the “principle of relativity” states that “the laws of physics
(including thermodynamics, optics, and electromagnetism, among others) are similar in all inertial frames
of reference.”
 The second postulate states that “the speed of light in free space is similar across all inertial frames of
reference and is not affected by the motion of its source.”
 The equation E = mc² implies that energy and mass are the same quantities and are interchangeable. The
increased relativistic mass (m) of an object times the square of the speed of light (c) is equivalent to the
kinetic energy (E) of that object.
 Relativity studies time and space, and how they are affected by the uniform motion of two objects
relative to each other.
 If two observers will move with respect to each other and will measure the time duration (also
called temporal separation) between two events, their observations will vary. This is because
the spatial separation affects the time measured by each observer.
 Proper time refers to the time interval between two events that happened at a similar point.
 Two observers will measure any clock to be slower if it is moving relative to them. This is because the
speed of light in free space is similar in both frames of reference.
 Time dilation occurs when a frame moves with a constant speed relative to the second frame, and the
time interval between two events as observed in the second reference frame is longer than Δt₀.
 Proper length or rest length refers to the length measured in the reference frame in which an object is
stationary.
 Length contraction occurs when a frame moves with constant speed relative to the second frame such
that their distances are parallel to the relative motion, and the distance L between the two points as
measured in the second reference frame is shorter than L₀.
 The classical addition of velocities (u = v + u’) does not apply to relativistic velocities.
 Galilean transformation supports the common notion that the passage of time is similar for all observers.
From this view, the coordinates of a given point are obtained from the fixed reference frame with respect
to its position in the moving frame.
 In Lorentz transformation, the primed frame travels with a speed v along the x-axis relative to the fixed
frame of reference. The frames of reference meet at t = t’ = 0 and x’ is moving with the primed reference
frame.
 Two objects’ relative velocity will never exceed the speed of light in free space. Lorentz transformation
relates an event’s time and coordinates in an inertial reference frame S to the time and coordinates of a
similar event viewed from a second inertial reference frame S’ moving at u with respect to the first.
 Special relativity generalizes the idea of momentum such that its conservation will become consistent
with both relativity and Newtonian mechanics.
 Rest mass m refers to the mass of a particle that is stationary relative to the observer. A particle whose

When 𝑣→ is less than the speed of light in free space (𝑣→<𝑐), 𝑝→=𝑚𝑣→1−𝑣2𝑐2 is nearly equivalent
rest mass is nonzero is also called a material particle.

to 𝑝→=𝑚𝑣→. As v increases or approaches c, the system’s momentum approaches infinity.



 Special relativity proposes that a system’s net mass is the summation of the relativistic masses of the
individual particles, and not simply the summation of the rest masses therein.

When v is way smaller than c, 𝐾=𝑚𝑐21−𝑣2𝑐2−𝑚𝑐2=(𝛾−1)𝑚𝑐2 becomes nearly equivalent to the

 When a particle’s v approaches the speed of light c, a particle’s kinetic energy approaches infinity.

Newtonian equation for kinetic energy, K = ½ mv².

 A particle’s kinetic energy may be defined as the difference between the total energy E and the energy
term mc².
 When K = 0 such that the particle is stationary, the famous relativity equation E = mc² is obtained. The
term mc² related to the rest mass m is referred to as the particle’s rest energy .
 Doppler effect refers to the frequency shift resulting from a wave source’s motion relative to an
observer.
 When a moving source emits light with a frequency equivalent to f₀, an observer at rest will measure light
to have a greater frequency such that f > f₀.
 When the source heads toward an observer, the perceived frequency f is larger than the generated
frequency f₀. This difference is called the Doppler frequency shift, or Δf = f - f₀.

observer, the sign for u is reversed such that 𝑓=𝑐−𝑢𝑐+𝑢𝑓0.

 When u/c < 1, Δf/ f is small and nearly equal to u/c, or Δf/ f = u/c. When the source heads away from the

 The phenomenon in which electrons are emitted from a material whose surface is illuminated as it absorbs
electromagnetic radiation is called the photoelectric effect.
 When the energy of an EM wave undergoes quantization, it is discharged and absorbed into photons, or
particle-like pouches of energy. One photon’s energy is proportional to the radiation frequency, but it has
no rest mass.
 The maximum kinetic energy of released electrically-charged particles does not change with the
intensity of light, but is in fact, proportional to it.
 The electromagnetic spectrum is an example of a continuous spectrum. Respective energies and
wavelengths across the spectrum determine whether an EM radiation is ionizing or non-ionizing.
 The atomic spectrum refers to the spectrum of EM radiation emitted or absorbed by electrically-charged
particles during their movement across various energy levels inside an atom.
 Energy increases through tiny leaps referred to as quanta (sing., quantum). Thus, a quantum of
energy is to the system’s net energy as an atom is to a system’s net mass.
 An atom’s ground state refers to the lowest energy state that an atom can be in. In an atom’s excited
state, the potential energy is higher than that in the ground state and the atom becomes unstable.
 The light frequencies emitted when electrons emit energy to go back to the ground state from the
unstable, excited state comprise the emission spectrum.
 The light frequencies that form the absorption spectrum are those with dark bands that arise when the
electrons absorb energy in the ground state such that higher energy states are attained.
 Radioactive emissions could be either positive, negative, or neutral. The radiations produced from these
three types of emissions are called alpha (α), beta (β), and gamma (γ).
 Ionizing power refers to the tendency of or likelihood for radiation to damage molecular structures.
 Penetration power is the capacity of radiation to pierce or pass through matter. The higher the
penetration power, the greater the danger of radiation.
 A greater mass obtains a lower penetration power and a greater ionizing power.
 When alpha particles are emitted during the nuclear disintegration, alpha decay occurs.
 In a beta-plus decay, the proton in the nucleus of an atom becomes a neutron, a positron (the electron’s
antimatter counterpart), and a neutrino (neutral particles that do not always interact with matter).
 In beta-minus decay, a neutron becomes a proton, an electron, and an anti-neutrino.
 When a nucleus undergoes an excited state, emitted photons called gamma rays may cause it to decay
into the ground state. Energies from these emissions range from 10 keV to 5 MeV, and this type of decay
is called gamma decay.
 The scientists Antoine Henri Becquerel, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, and Pierre Curie pioneered the studies on
radioactivity.
 Radioactivity refers to the property manifested by some types of matter where ionizing radiation is
emitted as a result of atomic nuclei disintegrating spontaneously.
 Half-life is defined as the rate at which a radioactive element decomposes, or the duration needed for ½
of a particular quantity of an isotope to decay.
 In radioactive decay, the unstable nuclide (a nucleus with a specific number of neutrons and protons) is
referred to as the parent nuclide, and the nuclide spawned from this decay is called the daughter
nuclide, which may either decay or become stable itself.
 The decay rate is directly proportional to N(t) and is equivalent to a constant times N(t).
 λ signifies the decay constant, whose value varies for each nuclide. Large decay constants imply faster
decay and smaller ones imply slower decay.