Optics Concepts
11 concepts · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · 10 prerequisite connections
Optics is the study of how light behaves when it encounters surfaces and boundaries. Reflection explains mirrors and why you see your face in a still lake. Refraction explains lenses, rainbows, and why a straw looks bent in a glass of water — light changes speed and direction when it passes from one material to another. Together, these two concepts form the foundation for understanding cameras, eyeglasses, telescopes, fiber optics, and the physics of vision itself. Optics builds directly on the wave properties studied in the Waves family.
This family view narrows the full physics map to one connected cluster. Read it from left to right: earlier nodes support later ones, and dense middle sections usually mark the concepts that hold the largest share of future work together.
Use the graph to plan review, then use the full concept list below to open precise pages for definitions, examples, formulas, and related guides.
Concept Dependency Graph
Concepts flow left to right, from foundational to advanced. Hover to highlight connections. Click any concept to learn more.
Connected Families
Optics concepts have 10 connections to other families.
All Optics Concepts
Reflection
The change in direction of a wave at a boundary so that it returns into the original medium.
Refraction
The change in direction of a wave as it passes from one medium into another where it travels at a different speed.
Speed of Light
The speed of light is the speed at which electromagnetic waves travel in a vacuum. It is one of the most important constants in physics.
Visible Light
Visible light is the small part of the electromagnetic spectrum that human eyes can detect. Different wavelengths in this range are seen as different colors.
Polarization
Polarization is the restriction of a transverse wave's oscillations to one direction or plane.
Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection happens when light traveling in a higher-index medium hits a boundary to a lower-index medium at an angle greater than the critical.
Mirrors
Mirrors are reflective surfaces that form images by reflection. Physics courses usually study plane mirrors and curved mirrors such as concave and convex mirrors.
Lenses
Lenses are transparent optical devices that form images by refraction. A converging lens brings parallel rays together, while a diverging lens spreads them apart.
Ray Diagram
A ray diagram is a drawing that uses a few principal rays to show how mirrors or lenses form images.
Image Formation
Image formation is the process by which reflected or refracted light creates an image that can be real or virtual, upright or inverted, magnified or.
Redshift
Redshift is the increase in the observed wavelength of light, usually because a light source is moving away from the observer or because space itself.