The speed of light varies based on the material that the waves are passing through. The refractive index of a material indicates how easily light travels through it compared to how easily light travels through a vacuum. For example, the refractive index of water is 1.33, meaning that light travels 1.33 times faster in a vacuum than it does in water.

Heredity is the passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from one generation to another. Heredity is made possible via large strings of chromosomes which carry information encoded in genes.

Decomposers (saprotrophs) are organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down the organic matter in the dead bodies of plants and animals into simple nutrients.

Velocity and displacement are vector quantities which means each is fully described by both a magnitude and a direction.  In contrast, scalar quantities are quantities that are fully described by a magnitude only.  A variable indicating a vector quantity will often be shown with an arrow symbol:  \(\vec{v}\)

During a chemical reaction molecules and atoms (reactants) are rearranged into new combinations that result in new kinds of atoms or molecules (products).