Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that allows the human eye to see or make the situation apparent or viewable. It has the properties of waves, and like ocean waves, light waves have crests and troughs. The properties of light include:

• Reflection: Each light obeys the law of reflection, which either stipulates that the angle of incidence equivalent to the angle of reflection or that the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface of the mirror all lie in the same plane.

• Refraction: This occurs when light waves change speed and direction as they pass from one medium to another. Differences in the refraction indices of two materials determine the magnitude of directional changes when light passes from one to the other.

• Dispersion: The splitting of a ray of white light into its constituent colors is called dispersion.

• Interference: When two or more waves meet, they can interfere with each other, either constructively or destructively.

• Diffraction: The phenomenon of bending of light around corners of small obstacles and hence its encroachment into the region of the geometrical shadow is called diffraction.

• Polarization: Light waves can be polarized, meaning that they vibrate in a particular direction.

• Scattering: When light interacts with matter, it can be scattered in different directions.

Other important properties of light include the speed of light, which is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second in a vacuum, and the wavelength, or the distance between one peak of a wave and the next peak.