Light doesn't travel straight when it moves between materials of different densities—it bends. This episode traces that single principle from the optical illusion of a straw in water through lenses and mirrors, magnification, and the total internal reflection that carries internet signals across oceans. Along the way, three experts who've spent careers bending light—a lens designer, an optometrist, and a telescope builder—untangle common misconceptions: that magnification makes images brighter, that mirrors reverse left and right, and why the same physics that tricks your eye also powers modern technology.
Based on "College Physics — Geometric Optics: How Lenses and Mirrors Bend Light" by OpenStax (Rice University) (OpenStax, https://openstax.org/books/college-physics/pages/25-introduction-to-geometric-optics), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Adapted by Demades into an AI-narrated audio discussion. Access for free at https://openstax.org.
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