LIGHT

Light

Light is a form of energy which is responsible for the sense of sight.

It enables to see things around us.

 Natural sources of light are Sun, fire etc.

 Man-made sources of light are tube lights, bulbs etc.
 Light travels in a straight line
 Light is made up of packets of energy called photons which travel
in a straight line at a very fast speed. Light can move through
small apertures and holes and can change direction, but will
always travel in straight lines.
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 Reflection

Light, sound, water, electromagnetic waves may change their direction upon
striking a surface. This is called reflection.

 Light waves get reflected while other waves may penetrate the
surface.
 Light gets reflected easily by shiny surfaces like stainless steel
plate, water, mirror etc.
 Polished and shiny surfaces act as a mirror due to light reflection
capabilities.

Reflection by Plane Mirror

 Light falling on a plane mirror at an angle (Angle of incidence)

gets reflected at the same angle (Angle of reflection) in other direction.

 When an object is placed in front of the mirror, an image of the

object is formed by the mirror which appears to be behind the mirror.
 The image formed by a plane mirror is
o Erect (upright position)
o Of the same size as the object
o At the same distance as the object
o With right and left sides interchanged.
 The image formed cannot be obtained on a screen. If we place a
screen (cardboard) in front or back of the mirror, the image will still can
be seen only in the mirror and not the screen.

Spherical Mirror

A curved shining surface of an object acts as a mirror.

 Most common types of curved mirrors are called spherical

mirrors.
 Spherical mirrors are classified based on their reflective surface
as one of two types, concave and convex.
 When a part of sphere is cut, the inside part is called the concave
side, while the outside part is called the convex side.
 A common example is a stainless steel spoon whose inside part
behaves as a concave and outer part behaves as a convex mirror.

Real and Virtual Image

When an image is formed on a screen with the help of a mirror, it is called a

Real Image. Similarly, an image which can’t be obtained on a screen with the
help of a mirror, it is called Virtual Image.

 Concave and convex mirrors can be used to produce real as well

as virtual images.
 Concave Mirror

 A concave mirror produces a smaller, bigger and inverted image

based on its distance from the object.
 When the distance between object and mirror is large, a small
inverted virtual image is formed.
 As the object is brought closer, the image becomes larger.
 At a very close distance, the image is large and upright.
 Applications of concave mirrors

The application of concave mirrors lies in the fact that when it is brought
closer to an object, anenlarged virtual image is obtained.

 Doctors use it for examining ears, nose, throat and eyes.

 Dentists use it for examining teeth and gums.

Also, a concave mirror concentrates the light falling on it into a narrow

beam. This is used in:

 Torches
 Car headlights

Convex Mirror

 A convex mirror generally produces anerect and smaller image of

the object.
 Convex mirror produce virtual images of the objects spread over
large area.
 Convex mirrors cannot produce real images.
 Applications of convex mirrors

 Rear view mirrors of vehicles so that person driving is able to see

most traffic behind him/her.
 As reflectors in street lamps to diverge light over a larger area.
 Used for making sun glasses and telescopes.

Lens

A Lens is a type of mirror which refracts the light instead of

reflection.Refraction is the bending of a light when it enters a medium. Here
the medium is Lens.

 Lens are of various types but the two most important types are
convex (on Bi-convex) and concave (or Bi-concave) lens
 Convex lens are thicker in middle than the edges whereas
concave lens are thinner at the middle than at the edges
 Lenses are transparent and light can pass through them.
 Convex lens are also called convergent as they concentrate (bend
inward) the light falling on it.
 Concave lens are also called divergent lens as they expand the
light (bend outward) falling on it.
 Real images are formed using convex lens by placing them in
between the object and the screen.

 Virtual images are also formed by convex lens which is erect and
larger in size.
 Concave lens do not form real images. They only form virtual
images which are always erect and smaller in size.
 Applications of lens include magnifying glass, telescopes, contact
lens, cameras etc.

Sunlight

The light rays emitted from the sun appear white but consists of 7 colours
namely, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. There are various
phenomena and objects that can split these white rays into individual colour
rays.

 Rainbow appears after or during rainfall due to the reflection,

refraction and dispersion of suns light by the water droplets in the
atmosphere.

 A Prism is a transparent optical object with polished surfaces

which refracts light. It refracts the sunlight into the seven colours.
 A Prism is a transparent optical object with polished surfaces
which refracts light. It refracts the sunlight into the seven colours.
 A compact disc also displays fine lines of these 7 colours when
sunlight falls on its shiny side.

Light waves
Light travels as transverse waves and faster than sound. It can be reflected, refracted
and dispersed. Ray diagrams show what happens to light in mirrors and lenses. Eyes
and cameras detect light.

How light travels

Light travels as waves. These are transverse waves, like the ripples in a tank of water.
The direction of vibration in the waves is at 90° to the direction that the light travels.

Light travels in straight lines, so if you have to represent a ray of light in a drawing,
always use a ruler.

Unlike sound waves, light waves can travel through a vacuum (empty space). They do
not need a substance to travel through, but they can travel through transparent and
translucent substances. The table summarises some similarities and differences
between light waves and sound waves:

Light waves Sound waves

Type of wave Transverse Longitudinal

Can they travel through matter (solids, Yes (if transparent or

Yes
liquids and gases)? translucent)

Can they travel through a vacuum? Yes No

Ears,
How are they detected? Eyes, cameras
microphones
 Light waves Sound waves

Can they be reflected? Yes Yes

Can they be refracted? Yes Yes

The speed of light

Light travels extremely quickly. Its maximum speed is approximately 300,000,000 m/s,
when it travels through a vacuum.

The very large difference between the speed of light in air (almost 300,000,000 m/s) and
the speed of sound in air (343 m/s) explains why you:

 see lightning before you hear it

 see a firework explode before you hear it
 see a distant door slam before you hear it

Reflection
A ray diagram shows how light travels, including what happens when it reaches a
surface. In a ray diagram, you draw each ray as:

 a straight line
 with an arrowhead pointing in the direction that the light travels

Remember to use a ruler and a sharp pencil.

The law of reflection

When light reaches a mirror, it reflects off the surface of the mirror:

 the incident ray is the light going towards the mirror

 the reflected ray is the light coming away from the mirror
 A ray diagram for reflection at a mirror

In the ray diagram:

 the hatched vertical line on the right represents the mirror

 the dashed line is called the normal, drawn at 90° to the surface of the mirror
 the angle of incidence, i, is the angle between the normal and incident ray
 the angle of reflection, r, is the angle between the normal and reflected ray

The law of reflection states that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection, i =
r. It works for any angle. For example:

 the angle of reflection is 30° if the angle of incidence is 30°

 the angle of reflection is 90° if the angle of incidence is 90°

In the second example, if a light ray travelling along the normal hits a mirror, it is
reflected straight back the way it came. The reflection of light from a flat surface such as
a mirror is called specular reflection – light meeting the surface in one direction is all
reflected in one direction.

Scattering

If light meets a rough surface, each ray obeys the law of reflection. However, the
different parts of the rough surface point in different directions, so the light is not all
reflected in one direction. Instead, the light is reflected in all directions. This is called
diffuse scattering. It explains why you can see a clear image of yourself in a shiny flat
mirror, but not in a dull rough wall.

Imaging in mirrors
A plane mirror is a flat mirror. When you look into a plane mirror, you see a reflected
image of yourself. This image:
 appears to be behind the mirror
 is the right way up
 is ‘laterally inverted’ (letters and words look as if they have been written
backwards)

You can use a ray diagram to show how an image in a mirror forms:

A ray diagram to show how an image forms in a mirror

Notice that the ‘real’ rays, the ones leaving the object and the mirror, are shown as solid
lines. The ‘virtual’ rays, the ones that appear to come from the image behind the mirror,
are shown as dashed lines. Remember that each incident ray will obey the law of
reflection.

Refraction
Light waves change speed when they pass across the boundary between two
substances with a different density, such as air and glass. This causes them to change
direction, an effect called refraction.

At the boundary between two transparent substances:

 the light slows down going into a denser substance, and the ray bends towards
the normal
 the light speeds up going into a less dense substance, and the ray bends away
from the normal

The diagram shows how this works for light passing into, and then out of, a glass block.
The same would happen for a Perspex block:
Refraction in a glass block. When light passes from air through a block with parallel
sides, it emerges parallel to the path of the light ray that entered it.

Refraction explains why an object appears to bend when it goes through water.

Refraction at the boundary between air and water

Focusing
Light can be focused so that it appears to meet at a single point. Focusing is important
for getting clear images in our eye or in photographs. Images that are not focused
appear blurred.

The pinhole camera

A pinhole camera consists of a box or tube with a translucent screen at one end and a
tiny hole (the pinhole) made in the other end. Light enters the box through the pinhole
and is focused by the pinhole onto the translucent screen. The image is upside down
and smaller than the object.
 A ray diagram to show focusing in a pinhole camera

The convex lens

A convex lens is made from a transparent material that bulges outwards in the middle on
both sides. It can focus light so that appears to meet at a single point, called the focal
point. Light is refracted as it passes into, then out of, the lens.

A ray diagram to show how a convex lens can focus light

Convex lenses are found in:

 magnifying glasses
 spectacles for people with long-sight (who can see distant objects clearly but not
nearby ones)
 telescopes

Colour
 White light is a mixture of many different colours, each with a different frequency.
White light can be split up into a spectrum of these colours using a prism, a
triangular block of glass or Perspex.
 Light is refracted when it enters the prism, and each colour is refracted by a
different amount. This means that the light leaving the prism is spread out into its
different colours, a process called dispersion.
 Dispersion of white light by a prism into a spectrum

The spectrum

Here are the seven colours of the spectrum listed in order of their frequency, from the
lowest frequency (fewest waves per second) to the highest frequency (most waves per
second):

 red
 orange
 yellow
 green
 blue
 indigo
 violet

This mnemonic is one way to remember the order: ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle In
Vain’.

Coloured light

There are three primary colours in light: red, green and blue. Light in these colours can
be added together to make the secondary colours magenta, cyan and yellow. All three
primary colours add together make white light.
Primary colours of light add together to make white light, or secondary colours

The way coloured light mixes is very different from the way that paint does.

When light hits a surface, some of it is absorbed and some of it is reflected. The light
that is reflected is the colour of the object in that light. For example, a blue object
absorbs all the colours of the spectrum except blue: it reflects blue light.

The table gives some more examples, displaying the colour of light shining on an object,
the colour(s) absorbed by an object, the colour reflected by an object in this light and the
colour of an object seen in this light.

White paper Red apple Green apple

Colours(s) that the

All Red only Green only
object can reflect

Red (all colours Green (all colours

Appearance of object White (no colours
absorbed except absorbed except
in white light absorbed)
red) green)

Appearance of object Red (only red light Black (no green light
Red
in red light to reflect) to reflect)

Appearance of object Green (only green Black (no red light

Green
in green light light to reflect) to reflect)

Appearance of object Blue (only blue Black (no red light Black (no green light
in blue light light to reflect) to reflect) to reflect)

Objects appear black in white light because they absorb all colours and reflect none.
Objects also appear black in any single colour of light if their colour is not the same as
the light. For example, a green object appears black in any other light than green (or
white which contains green) because there is no green light shining on it to reflect into
your eyes.
 Detecting light
Cameras and our eyes detect light. In each case, they have:

 a material that is sensitive to light

 a change that happens when this material absorbs light

The camera

Cameras are devices that focus light from an object onto a photo-sensitive material
using a lens. In an old-fashioned camera, the photo-sensitive material was camera film.
When the film absorbed light, a chemical change produced an image in the film, called
the ‘negative’. This was used to produce a photograph on photo-sensitive paper.

In a modern camera or the camera in a mobile phone, the photo-sensitive material

produces electrical impulses, which are used to produce an image file. This can be
viewed on the screen, or its information sent to a printer.

A cross-section of a camera

The eye

Like the camera, the eye focuses light from an object onto a photo-sensitive material.
However, in the eye, this material is the retina. The retina contains cells that are
sensitive to light. They produce electrical impulses when they absorb light. These
impulses are passed along the optic nerve to the brain, which interprets them as vision.
Light is focused onto the retina of the eye

Component parts of the eye