Educational Media Reviews Online

The five titles in this series provide a good overview of the historical and modern understanding of light and optics through an extensive series of 3-D animations. Each DVD contains several short video modules, each focusing on a particular concept, such as Huygens ’ Principle, speed of light, and blackbody radiation. Though the animations are not heavily mathematical, essential key formulas and calculations are clearly explained. The modules are arranged in a logical progression on each disk. However, an instructor can readily select individual modules to illustrate a particular point.

The disks contain only the animations and a single narrator throughout the series. No other visual or audio variations are used such as different narrators, shots of people talking or performing an experiment. As a result, the reviewer recommends that the animation modules be interspersed throughout a series of lectures with appropriate laboratory demonstrations and other visual aids. The animations are an effective tool to illustrate points that would otherwise be difficult to visualize or demonstrate live. However, the audience’s attention span would be severely tested by viewing a long series of these pure animation modules without breaks.

The five titles in the series are:

1)The Wave Nature of Light (76 minutes)
2)The Special Theory of Relativity (63 minutes)
3) The Quantum Leap: Photon and Light Particles (46 minutes)
4) Geometric Optics: Reflection (57 minutes)
5) Geometric Optics: Refraction (70 minutes)