General Biology Interactive Presentation

Light is a peculiar form of energy because it can be described in one way.

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Answer explanation

Light, along with the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum, is a peculiar form of energy because it can be described in two ways!

Sir Isaac Newton conducted a simple experiment showing that sunlight could be separated into a spectrum of different colors by passing it through a prism.

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Answer explanation

It is true that an English physicist named Sir Isaac Newton conducted a simple experiment showing that a narrow beam of sunlight could be separated into a spectrum of different colors by passing it through a prism!

Wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation vary from the very short wavelengths of cosmic rays to very long radio waves.

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Answer explanation

Waves are characterized by their wavelength or the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next. (less than 0.1 nanometer, or nm) to very long radio waves (measured in thousands of meters)

Maxwell's experiment with the prism can be explained because light bends when it passes from one transparent substance to another, from air into a quartz prism.

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Answer explanation

FALSE! It was Newton who conducted this experiment.

Albert Einstein proposed that electromagnetic radiation was composed of packets of energy, which he called quanta (singular, quantum)

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Answer explanation

Yes! It was indeed Albert Einstein who proposed this phenomenon.

The biosphere is the reason why life has become so dependent on such a limited portion of the electromagnetic spectrum

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Answer explanation

FACT! Most of the shorter wavelengths, such as the ultraviolet, are mostly filtered out by ozone and oxygen in the atmosphere. Longer wavelengths, such as infrared, are similarly filtered out by water vapor and carbon dioxide.

A pigment that absorbs all wavelengths of light with equal efficiency will appear red.

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Answer explanation

A pigment that absorbs all wavelengths of light with equal efficiency will appear black. Most pigments, however, selectively absorb only certain wavelengths, leaving the remaining wavelengths to be either transmitted or reflected.

With an instrument called a spectrophotometer, it is possible to measure how much of each wavelength of light is absorbed by a sample of pigment.

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Answer explanation

With an instrument called a spectrophotometer, it is possible to measure how much of each wavelength of light is absorbed by a sample of pigment. The resulting graph is called an absorption spectrum.

The first scientist who conducted recorded experiments on how plants found food was Zach Schneider, a Belgian scientist who studied the soil in which plants lived.

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Answer explanation

The first scientist who conducted recorded experiments on how plants found food was Jan Baptista van Helmont, a Belgian scientist who studied the soil in which plants lived.

Swiss scientist Jean Senebier first deduced that plants produced oxygen and used carbon dioxide while undergoing the process of respiration in the late eighteenth century.

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Answer explanation

Correct! It was Swiss scientist Jean Senebier first deduced that plants produced oxygen and used carbon dioxide while undergoing the process of respiration in the late eighteenth century.