A series of incident rays and their corresponding reflected rays are depicted in the diagrams in this tutorial. Each ray strikes a surface with a different orientation; yet each ray reflects in accordance with the law of reflection.

Through illustrated diagrams and animations, students explore the broken pencil phenomenon and light refraction.

Illustrated diagrams in this tutorial help students understand the properties and functions of lenses.

Light travels as waves. Waves can be described by their amplitude, wavelength and frequency. The speed of a wave can be calculated from its frequency and wavelength.

Students discover how mirrors affect optics in this module through reading informational text, watching animations, and answering self-checking practice questions.

In this activity, students construct their own pinhole camera to observe the behavior of light.

This physics department site features an indexing page for a variety of pages pertaining to atmospheric optics. Topics include rainbows, halos, auroras, mirages, star twinkling, sunsets, green flashes, coronas, and more. Excellent...

A discussion of how to make a magnifying lens exhibit using a water-filled flask and a light bulb. Consists of assembly instructions and a "To do and notice" section. Great for a teacher demonstration or a student project.

In this activity students will create images of images of images that can repeat forever. Students will recreate this effect by setting up two acrylic plastic mirrors.