Middle School

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

An index of light waves and color tutorials from the Physics Classroom Electromagnetic Spectrum - In this applet, you can click on the wavelength/frequency scale and change the wavelength and frequency by dragging the mouse or by using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Holding the shift key down while pressing the left or right arrow keys changes the wavelength by a factor of 10. Electromagnetic Wave - This animation (java applet) shows an electromagnetic wave, namely a plane polarized wave, which propagates in positive x direction. Wavelike Behaviors of Light two good animations are included with this tutorial Polarization - questions are included at the end to check your understanding of this concept Polarization 101 from Physics 2000 - Topics related to polarization are presented with great illustrations and several interactive tasks Pinhole Camera - Use this interactive java applet to explore images formed by pinhole cameras Prism - This interactive java applet let you play with a light source and a prism, to study the physics of light. Two Point Source Interference Huygens' principle can be investigated with this java applet Reflection and Refraction of Waves - (Explanation by Huygens' Principle) Refraction of Light - in this applet a ray of light coming from the top left strikes the boundary surface of two media Interference Movie from Physics 2000 Diffraction of Light by a Single Slit - a java applet Interference of Light at a Double Slit - a java applet The mathematics of refraction - Snell's law Boundary Behavior - the concepts behind the math known as Snell's law Snell's law Java applet from Northwestern University - manipulate the variables on both sides of the boundary, and see a wave front view or a laser view Refraction and Reflection - change the indices of refraction of the two media, and drag the incoming ray to any angle between 0 and 90 degrees Electromagnetic and visible spectra Light absorption, reflection, and transmission - this tutorial includes practice questions Form white light by adding three colors of light using a click and drag applet Color addition - two questions to check understanding conclude this tutorial Color subtraction - examples are followed by a series of questions to check understanding Blue skies and red sunsets Mix light beams or paint pigments with this java applet (double right click to switch from light to paint) Shadows from overlapping colored light - This java applet let you play with shadow and image. To make it more fun, there are 3 different colors (Red/Green/Blue) light source.