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Spherical aberration is a type of aberration in which light rays that strike a lens near its edge are not focused to the same point as light rays that strike nearer the center, leading to a blurred image.

Magnification is the process of enlarging something only in appearance, not in physical size. It is also the ratio of the height of the image to the height of the object.

A convex lens is a lens that converges rays of light that are traveling parallel to its principal axis.

A concave lens is a lens that diverges rays of light that are traveling parallel to its principal axis.

The critical angle is the angle of incidence above which total internal reflection occurs when light is traveling from a medium with a higher index of refraction to one with a lower index of refraction.

Phase shift is the change in phase angle of a wave, often resulting in a wave that is either advanced or delayed in time relative to a second wave for interference purposes.

The index of refraction is a dimensionless number that describes how light or any other radiation propagates through that medium.

The focal point is the point where parallel light rays meet after passing through a lens or reflecting off a mirror.

Young's Double-Slit Experiment demonstrated the wave nature of light by showing that coherent light waves passing through two slits create an interference pattern of bright and dark fringes.

Total internal reflection is the phenomenon in which the complete reflection of a light wave within a medium occurs from the boundary with a less dense medium when the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle.

A concave mirror is a mirror that is curved inward and can produce both real and virtual images, depending on the position of the object relative to the focal length.

A convex mirror is a mirror that is curved outward and always produces virtual, diminished, and upright images.

Diffraction refers to the spreading out of waves around obstacles or openings, which occurs when the wavelength is comparable to the size of the obstacle or opening.

Aberration in optics refers to the imperfections that prevent light from being focused perfectly and result in blurring of the image, including spherical and chromatic aberrations.

Snell's Law relates the angles of incidence and refraction with the indices of refraction of the two media.

An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of high-quality extruded glass or plastic, which functions as a waveguide to transmit light between two ends of the fiber.

Coherent light consists of waves of the same frequency or wavelength that are phase-aligned and travel in the same direction, often produced by lasers.

Polarization is a phenomenon in which waves of light or other electromagnetic radiation are restricted to certain directions of vibration.

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated.

A virtual image is an image formed by light rays that appear to converge but do not actually do so; it cannot be projected onto a screen.

Dispersion is the phenomenon in which the phase velocity of a wave depends on its frequency, often observed in light as the separation of white light into its component colors.

The f-number or f-stop of an optical system is a dimensionless number that describes the ratio of the lens's focal length to the diameter of the aperture; it quantifies the amount of light that passes through the aperture.

Refraction is the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another due to a change in its speed.

Chromatic aberration is an aberration caused by lens dispersion, with different colors of light being refracted by different amounts and thus not focusing at the same point.

A ray diagram is a graphical representation used to predict the size, location, orientation, and type of image formed by an optical device such as a mirror or lens.

Huygens' Principle states that every point on a wavefront acts as a new source of wavelets, which spread out in the forward direction at the speed of the wave itself.

Interference is the phenomenon in which two waves superpose to form a resultant wave of greater, lower, or the same amplitude.

A real image is an image formed when light rays converge and pass through the image location; it can be projected onto a screen.

The lensmaker's equation relates the focal length of a lens to the radii of curvature of its surfaces and its index of refraction: