OPTICAL PROPERTIES

Optics Review: Types of Light Sources

 INCANDESCENT
 Created by glowing objects
 Give off lots of heat
 Inefficient – cost more to operate
 Cheap to make
 FLUORESCENT
 Created by UV emission from mercury source
 Less heat produced
 Less expensive to run
 More expensive to make
 PHOSPHORESCENT
 Glow in the dark stickers, clocks etc.
 Absorb light and then re-emit it later
 Usually a greeny-yellow colour
 CHEMILUMINESCENT
 Chemical reaction causes light
 No heat
 Glow sticks
 BIOLUMINESCENT
 Chemiluminescence in living organisms
 Fire flies, some deep sea fish
Optics Review: Properties of Light

 Light travels in straight lines called RAYS

 Light is a form of energy and travels in WAVES

 “White” Light can be refracted into the VISIBLE

SPECTRUM
ROY G. BIV
Optics Review: Primary Colours of
Light
 Primary Additive Colours
 All colours can be made from 3 primary additive colours of LIGHT

RED + BLUE + GREEN → WHITE

RED + BLUE → MAGENTA

RED + GREEN → YELLOW
GREEN + BLUE → CYAN

Technologies that use this: TV’s, spotlights, movie theatres

THE HUMAN EYE!
Optics Review Primary Colours of Light

 Primary Subtractive Colours of Light

 Take White light and subtract one primary colour and we have a
Subtractive Colour
Ex: White – blue = yellow

magenta + cyan → blue

magenta + yellow → red
yellow + cyan → green
magenta + cyan + yellow → black

 These are used in pigments (paints, ink jet printer cartridges)

 Coloured filters pull (subtract) colours to produce desired results
Optics Review Primary Colours of Light

Example
White – blue = yellow
R+G+B – B = R+G

yellow + cyan → green

R + G + G +B → Green
*Green dominates the combination
Optics Review: EMR

 Electromagnetic Radiation is a spectrum of wave

energies and includes VISIBLE light
 Waves have WAVELENGTH (), FREQUENCY(), and
AMPLITUDE (A)

 From shortest to greatest frequency

(least energy --------------------------------------------------------- most energy)

Radio – Micro – Infrared – VIS – UV – X-Rays – Gamma Rays

Longest  ----------------------------------------------- shortest 

Optics Review: Uses of EMR

 RadioWaves
 TV, radio, cell phones
 Microwaves
 Microwave ovens – cooking food
 Telecommunications
 Infrared
 Remote controls
 Thermal imaging
 UV
 Tanning (also causes sun burns and skin damage)
 Heating lamps – fast food, spas
 X-Rays
 Doctors and dentists use to see bones/teeth
 Gamma Rays
 Doctors use to target and kill cancer cells
Optics Review: Laws of Reflection

 Light travels in straight lines called RAYS

 Light bounces or reflects off of hard, shiny surfaces like a mirror

 Law 1: The Angle of Incidence (i) = the Angle of

Reflection (r)
 Law 2: The Incident Ray (IR), Reflected Ray (RR),
and the Normal (N) are in the same plane

IR RR
i r

Reflecting Surface
Optics Review: Laws of Reflection
 Example: If the angle of incidence is 45o, what is the
angle of reflection?
N

IR RR
45 r

Mirror

 Law of Reflection states that i =  r so both equal 45o

 NOTE: i is between the Incident Ray and the Normal

Optics Review: Laws of Refraction

 Light “bends” or refracts when light moves at an

angle from one medium to another IR

 Law 1: The refracted ray bends N

towards the normal if light enters a
denser medium (air → water)
 Law 2: The refracted ray bends
away from the normal if light
enters a less dens medium (water
→ air)
Optics Review: Refraction

 When light enters water, light is “bent”

 This causes optical illusions
 Double images
 Images of objects where they are not

 REFRACTION and REFLECTION ALSO CAUSE:

 Rainbows
 Sun dogs (rainbow like circles around the sun on the very cold
days)
 Sunsets and Sunrises – dust and oxygen and nitrogen particles in
the air reflect and refract light
 BLUE SKY – oxygen and nitrogen scatter (reflect) light filtering
out colours other than blue
 Optics Review: Properties of Lenses

 Lenses are shaped pieces of

plastic or glass that refract
light
 Convex Lenses: thicker in
middle – converge or focus
light

 Concave Lenses: thicker on

edge – diverge or spread
light
Optics Review: Properties of Lenses

 Convex lenses can

 Magnify
 Invert
 Form real images
 Concave lenses can:
 Minimize
 Create inverted or upright images
 Optics Review: Properties of Mirrors

 Lenses are shaped pieces of plastic or glass that refract light

 Convex Mirrors (fisheye): Create virtual, upright, smaller
images
 Used in side mirrors, security mirrors
 Concave Lenses: can create many different types of images
depending upon placement
 Used for vanity/makeup mirrors - magnifying
 Optics Review: The
EYE

 The eye is the organ responsible for sight

 The retina has two types of cells:

 RODS – sensitive to light

 See in shades of gray

 CONES – sensitive to colour

 RED, GREEN & BLUE (the three primary colours)
Optics Review: The EYE
Optics Review: The EYE
Optics Review: The
EYE

 The EYE  The Camera

 Eyelash  Lens cap
 Retina  Film / chip
 Lens  Lens
 iris  Diaphragm
 Ciliary muscles  Focus ring
 Optic Nerve  USB cable
Optics Review: The EYE and
Lenses

 Farsightedness –
lens too flat, the
image produced by
the lens is too far
past the retina
 Correction – use a
convex lens to
converge the image
on the retina
Optics Review: The EYE and Lenses

 Nearsightedness – lens
too curved; the image
produced by the lens is
too far forward of the
retina
 Correction – use a
concave lens to diverge
the image on the retina
Optics Review: The EYE and
Lenses