Lots of knowledge of vocabulary is needed to understand the topics Christiaan Huygens was involved in.
- ORION NEBULA- One of the nebulas in space. It can be found near the constellation of Orion. Nebulas are clouds of gas and dust where stars form. This causes stars to be found in these nebulas.
- QUANTUM MECHANICS- The branch of physics that deals with subatomic (very, very small) particles. One of its main principles is how subatomic particles can behave both like particles and waves. It was created after the discovery that light had this dual nature, hundreds of years after Huygens proposed his wave theory of light.
- ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES- Waves of light. Visible light is only one type of electromagnetic waves; there are also radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma ray waves. The wave theory of light, proposed by Huygens, was accepted first. Unlike other types of waves, electromagnetic waves do not need a medium to travel through.
- PHOTONS- Particles of light. Photons are the main kind of quanta. A quanta in physics is a whole number packet of energy, unlike waves, which can have any amount of energy, even if it is fractional. They were discovered for this reason; in some cases, the math didn't line up right if fractional energy was allowed for light, so photons were theorized. The named "quantum mechanics" come from quanta.
- THE HAGUE: a city in the Netherlands that was where the Dutch government was based.
- LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MOMENTUM: In a closed environment with no outside interference, when two objects collide, the total amount of energy before and after the collision is the same.
- LAW OF CONSERVATION OF ENERGY: The total amount of energy always stays the same. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only change forms.
- CENTRIFUGAL FORCE: the force that pushes outward on spinning objects.