Absorption (optics)

Have you ever seen a sponge soak up water? When you dip a sponge in water, it starts to absorb the water and gets bigger and heavier. This is kind of like what happens with light when it goes through certain materials, like glass or a prism.

When light passes through a material, some of it gets absorbed by the material. Absorption is when something soaks up another thing. Just like how the sponge soaks up water.

Different materials absorb different colors of light. For example, if you look at a red shirt through a blue filter, it will appear darker because the blue filter absorbs the red light.

When light is absorbed by a material, its energy is transferred to the material. This makes the material vibrate and heat up. That's why when you leave a piece of metal out in the sun, it gets hot to the touch. The metal is absorbing the light and turning it into heat.

So, in short, absorption is when light gets soaked up by a material and its energy is transferred to the material, which can make it heat up.