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Diffraction is the bending and spreading out of light waves around corners or obstacles, or through an aperture, strongly occurring when the size of the obstacle or aperture is comparable to the wavelength of light.

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

The Fresnel Equations describe how light waves are partly reflected and partly refracted at an interface between two media, with the reflected and transmitted waves having amplitudes dependent on the angle of incidence.

Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another with different optical densities, due to a change in its speed.

Polarization is the phenomenon through which waves of light or other electromagnetic radiation are restricted to vibrate in a particular direction, perpendicular to the direction of the wave propagation.

Dispersion is the separation of light into its component colours due to different wavelengths bending by different amounts as they pass through a material like a prism.

Total internal reflection occurs when a light ray traveling through a medium with a higher index of refraction approaches a less dense medium at an angle greater than the critical angle and is reflected back entirely.

Huygens' Principle states that every point on a wavefront may be considered a source of secondary spherical wavelets that spread out in the forward direction at the same speed as the wave itself, and the new wavefront is the envelope of these wavelets.

Reflection is the bouncing back of light from a surface it cannot pass through, obeying the principle that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Rayleigh Scattering is the scattering of light by particles much smaller than the wavelength of light, which causes the blue hue of the daytime sky due to the scattering of shorter (blue) wavelengths of light more than longer (red) wavelengths.

Snell's Law describes the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction, stating that the ratio of their sines is constant and equal to the ratio of the indices of refraction of the two media.