{
    "api": "YAML JSON TOON Database",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "format": "json",
    "dataset": {
        "id": 2864,
        "slug": "optics-fundamentals",
        "title": "Optics Fundamentals",
        "description": "Basic concepts in the study of light.",
        "summary": "The core phenomena of geometric and wave optics: reflection, refraction, diffraction, interference, dispersion and lenses, with Snell's law, total internal reflection, polarization, scattering, refractive index, the thin lens equation and thin-film interference.",
        "use_when": [
            "You need a precise definition of an optical phenomenon.",
            "You are explaining how a lens, prism or fiber behaves."
        ],
        "caveats": [
            "Geometric optics (rays) is an approximation that fails when features are comparable to the wavelength; wave optics is needed for diffraction and interference.",
            "Refractive index depends on wavelength, which is what produces dispersion."
        ],
        "related": [
            "waves-and-sound",
            "electromagnetism-basics"
        ],
        "entry_count": 16,
        "fields": [
            {
                "section": "data",
                "field": "concept",
                "type": "string",
                "example": "Reflection"
            },
            {
                "section": "data",
                "field": "description",
                "type": "string",
                "example": "Light bouncing off a surface."
            }
        ],
        "category": "Physics",
        "category_slug": "physics",
        "tags": "physics,optics,light",
        "view_count": 50,
        "created_at": 1793403093,
        "updated_at": 1793403093
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "concept": "Reflection",
            "description": "Light bouncing off a surface."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Refraction",
            "description": "Bending of light as it passes between media."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Diffraction",
            "description": "Spreading of light around obstacles or apertures."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Interference",
            "description": "Combination of light waves producing reinforcement or cancellation."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Dispersion",
            "description": "Separation of light into colors by wavelength."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Lens",
            "description": "Transparent object that refracts light to form images."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Snell's Law",
            "description": "Relates the angles of incidence and refraction to the refractive indices: n1 sin(theta1) = n2 sin(theta2)."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Refractive Index",
            "description": "The ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to its speed in a medium."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Total Internal Reflection",
            "description": "Complete reflection of light at a boundary when it travels from a denser to a less dense medium beyond the critical angle; the principle of optical fiber."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Critical Angle",
            "description": "The smallest angle of incidence at which total internal reflection occurs."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Polarization",
            "description": "Restriction of the oscillation direction of a transverse wave such as light to a particular plane."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Scattering",
            "description": "Redirection of light by particles or molecules; Rayleigh scattering of sunlight by air gives the sky its blue color."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Focal Length",
            "description": "The distance from a lens or mirror to the point where parallel rays converge."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Thin Lens Equation",
            "description": "Relates object distance, image distance and focal length: 1\/f = 1\/d_o + 1\/d_i."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Thin-Film Interference",
            "description": "Colors produced when light reflecting from the top and bottom of a thin film interferes, as in soap bubbles and oil slicks."
        },
        {
            "concept": "Aberration",
            "description": "A departure from ideal image formation, such as spherical or chromatic aberration."
        }
    ]
}