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Light

Lesson Plans

1. Light Properties (University of California - Battle)
   Provides a lesson to study the properties of light, especially as applied to astronomy. 3-01

Materials

1. Color Wheels (Sanford)
   Provides color wheels of primary, secondary, and intermediate colors. 9-01

Multimedia

1. Relativity (Time)
   Provides audio of Einstein explaining that energy equals mass times the velocity of light squared. 1-00

News

1. Light Waves Used for Database Searches (Macmillan Publishers - Nature - Ball)
   Describes a process for using light waves to conduct searches for data on a computer, expected to yield a billion-fold increase in speed over current electronics-based searches. 5-01

Papers

1. Infrared Photovoltaic Cells (J X Crystals)
   Describes a new cell, thermophotovoltaic (TPV), that converts infrared light into electricity. It can be used in a furnace, for example, to convert wasted infrared heat into additional electricity. 6-01
2. Light - Implications If It Can Vary in Speed (New Scientist)
   Provides a summary of cosmological problems that may be solvable if light can, in fact, vary in speed. 7-00
3. Light - Properties of Light (Encyclozine.com)
   Provides basic information on the nature of light and defines key terms. 5-01
4. Light - Speed of Light (PhysLink.com)
   Provides an explanation on how the speed of light is measured, as well as describing its speed in several forms. 8-01
5. Light - Speed of Light May Be Changing (New Scientist)
   Provides a summary of research that shows that the speed of light, one of the most important constants in physics and astronomy, may be changing. 8-01
6. Light-Years (Discovery.com)
   Describes light-years, a unit of measurement to stars and other distant bodies in space. Visitors sometimes call it light years. 3-02
7. Photon Measurement (Nature)
   Provides news on a devise that measures photons in the far-infrared spectrum of light. It is 10,000 times more powerful than previous devices.
8. Quantum Primer (Simon Fraser University - Lower)
   Provides an explanation of quantum theory as it applies to light, waves, electrons, and more. 2-00

Projects

1. Colors and Heat (Blackout)
   Provides a project to demonstrate the relationship between colors in light from the sun and heat. 3-02
2. Discover the Colors of White Light (NASA Langley Research Center - Why Files)
   Provides a project to determine the colors in white light. 3-02
3. Reflection of Light in Water (NASA Langley Research Center - Why Files)
   Provides a project to understand how light is reflected. 3-02