Tyndall effect
E571557
The Tyndall effect is the scattering of light by particles in a colloid or fine suspension, which makes beams of light visible in mediums like fog, smoke, or dusty air.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Tyndall effect canonical | 1 |
| Tyndall scattering | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T6146232 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tyndall effect Context triple: [John Tyndall, knownFor, Tyndall effect]
-
A.
Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering is the physical phenomenon in which light or other electromagnetic radiation is elastically scattered by particles much smaller than its wavelength, explaining effects such as the blue color of the daytime sky.
-
B.
Raman effect
The Raman effect is a spectroscopic phenomenon in which light scattered by a material undergoes a change in wavelength due to interactions with the material’s molecular vibrations, providing a powerful tool for chemical and structural analysis.
-
C.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
D.
Kapitza–Dirac effect
The Kapitza–Dirac effect is a quantum phenomenon in which a beam of particles, such as electrons or atoms, is diffracted by a standing wave of light, demonstrating the wave-particle duality of matter.
-
E.
Stokes shift
Stokes shift is a phenomenon in spectroscopy where the wavelength of emitted light is longer (lower energy) than that of the absorbed light, commonly observed in fluorescence and phosphorescence.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Tyndall effect Target entity description: The Tyndall effect is the scattering of light by particles in a colloid or fine suspension, which makes beams of light visible in mediums like fog, smoke, or dusty air.
-
A.
Rayleigh scattering
Rayleigh scattering is the physical phenomenon in which light or other electromagnetic radiation is elastically scattered by particles much smaller than its wavelength, explaining effects such as the blue color of the daytime sky.
-
B.
Raman effect
The Raman effect is a spectroscopic phenomenon in which light scattered by a material undergoes a change in wavelength due to interactions with the material’s molecular vibrations, providing a powerful tool for chemical and structural analysis.
-
C.
Poisson spot
Poisson spot is a bright point of light that appears at the center of the shadow of a circular object due to wave diffraction, providing striking evidence for the wave nature of light.
-
D.
Kapitza–Dirac effect
The Kapitza–Dirac effect is a quantum phenomenon in which a beam of particles, such as electrons or atoms, is diffracted by a standing wave of light, demonstrating the wave-particle duality of matter.
-
E.
Stokes shift
Stokes shift is a phenomenon in spectroscopy where the wavelength of emitted light is longer (lower energy) than that of the absorbed light, commonly observed in fluorescence and phosphorescence.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (37)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
light scattering phenomenon
ⓘ
optical phenomenon ⓘ |
| causedBy | elastic scattering of light ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | true solution transparency ⓘ |
| dependsOn |
particle size
ⓘ
wavelength of light ⓘ |
| describedAs | light scattering by particles larger than molecules but small enough to remain suspended ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | John Tyndall ⓘ |
| discoveryCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| example |
headlight beams visible in fog
ⓘ
sunlight rays visible through forest mist ⓘ visible projector beam in a dusty room ⓘ |
| field |
colloid science
ⓘ
optics ⓘ physical chemistry ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Tyndall scattering
ⓘ
linked to:
Tyndall effect
|
| involves | scattering of light ⓘ |
| makesVisible | path of a light beam ⓘ |
| namedAfter | John Tyndall ⓘ |
| observedIn |
colloidal solutions
ⓘ
dusty air ⓘ fog ⓘ smoke ⓘ |
| occursIn |
colloids
ⓘ
fine suspensions ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
Mie scattering
ⓘ
linked to:
Mie theory
Rayleigh scattering ⓘ |
| requires |
dispersed particles
ⓘ
heterogeneous mixture ⓘ transparent or translucent medium ⓘ |
| strongerFor | shorter wavelengths of visible light ⓘ |
| usedFor | distinguishing colloids from true solutions ⓘ |
| usedIn |
aerosol studies
ⓘ
colloid characterization ⓘ environmental monitoring ⓘ optical diagnostics ⓘ |
| visibleWhen | light passes through a turbid medium ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Tyndall effect Description of subject: The Tyndall effect is the scattering of light by particles in a colloid or fine suspension, which makes beams of light visible in mediums like fog, smoke, or dusty air.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Tyndall effect