Review Questions for Chapter 19 -
Light, Color, and Atmospheric Optics
- Why do objects have color?
- What is an example of reflection in our environment?
- What is Mie scattering? What kinds of particles in our atmosphere
serve as Mie scatterers?
- Why do clouds appear white? Why do they appear dark?
- What is Rayleigh scattering? how does it explain why the sky is
blue? What would the sun look like with no atmosphere? What
would the sky look like with no atmosphere?
- Why does the sky look light blue when it is more humid? Under what
conditions is the sky "deep" blue in color?
- Why is the sun and moon orange/red at sunrise and sunset? Why do
clouds appear orange/red at sunrise and sunset?
- How does pollution affect the coloration of the sun/moon at sunrise or
sunset?
- Describe refraction. What wavelengths (colors) bend more?
Less?
- How does light bend in passing from more to less or less to more dense
media?
- Generally, how does light from the sun refract in our atmosphere?
Explain with the aid of a diagram.
- When viewing stars or other planets, are they in their actual position?
Explain.
- What is twilight? How is it created?
- With the aid of a diagram, explain the formation of the green flash.
- How does an inferior mirage form? On a hot summer day, can you see heat
rising from a road? Explain.
- How does a superior mirage form?
- How do halos, tangent arcs, and sundogs form?
- Describe the process of primary and secondary rainbow formation.
- Physically, what is diffraction? How does it create corona, glory
and irridescence?