Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it.
- Optics studies the behaviour of electromagnetic radiation in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Some fields of optics also study the behaviour and properties of other forms of electromagnetic radiation such as X-rays and microwaves.
- The observation and study of optical phenomena offer many clues as to the nature of light.
- Optical phenomena include absorption, dispersion, diffraction, polarization, reflection, refraction, scattering and transmission.
- Optics explains the appearance of rainbows, how light reflects off mirrors, how light refracts through glass or water, and why light separates into a spectrum of colours as it passes through a prism.