Physics of Media Arts: Conceptual Physics for Students of the Media Arts

Look around the room and think about all of the different types of surfaces that you might see. Perhaps there’s a window and you see some glare that partially obscures the outside world. Perhaps there’s a mirror and you can see a perfect image as if you’re looking through a window into a different universe. Perhaps there are walls of different colors that you see, or textures on the floor that you see. Maybe there’s a glass of water and you can see a strange bending effect.

All of these types of interactions can be understood using three light concepts: absorption, reflection, refraction. Sometimes, a photon hits a surface, and then it ceases to exist. This is known as absorption. When this happens, the photon basically gives its energy to the surface. Other times, the photon bounces off of the surface. This is known as reflection. And sometimes, the photon passes through a surface, but perhaps with some changes to its direction. This is known as refraction. We are going to study each of these.