Grade 12

ABM / TVL/A&D
Propagation of Light, Reflection
and Refraction
 Teflon rice
Cantor fire

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ANAGRAM
 General Behavior of Light

Reflection - is the bouncing of

light when it reaches reflecting
surface or the boundary
between two media.
 Two types of Reflection

1. Specular reflection
- occurs when parallel
rays of light hit a
smooth surface and is
reflected uniformly or
regularly.
 Two types of Reflection

2. Diffuse
reflection - occurs
when parallel beam
of light strike
uneven or coarse
surfaces.
Refraction - When light
passes obliquely from one
medium to another medium or
different density, or when it
passes through different
layers or varying densities
within the same medium,
such as Earth’s atmosphere,
its path is bent from a straight
Refraction
line at the boundary of the
medium where the density
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changes.
Dual Nature of Light
Light has a dual nature, sometimes
it behaves like a particle (called a
photon), which explains how light
travels in straight lines and
sometimes it behaves like a wave,
which explains how light bends (or
diffracts) around an object.
Dual Nature of Light
René Descartes and Isaac Newton
were the two scientists who
studied the behavior of light.
They conducted experiments
using a prism separately to
explain the emergence of the
colors of light.
 He observed that the red light
refracted the least, whereas the
violet light refracted the most.

Particle Model
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 Corpuscular theory of light - states
that light was composed of tiny
particles called corpuscles that travel
in straight line and can travel through
a vacuum.

Particle Model
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 Violet corpuscles are the least massive
and deflected the most while red light
corpuscles are the most massive and
deflected the least

Particle Model
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 Reflection was explained as the
bouncing of light corpuscles on a
surface like a ball.

Particle Model
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 Refraction was explained by the
presence of a force at the interface of
two media.

Particle Model
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 Wave Model

René Descartes - studied and explained the concept of

refraction with the assumption that light is a wave.
He produced a rainbow by using a water-filled glass
sphere and sunlight.
 Wave Model

He studied the refraction and emergence of

colors of light in a prism.
 Wave Model

He explained the wave nature of light using

the concept of the plenum, an invisible
substance occupying all space not occupied
by matter.
 Wave Model

Descartes noted that when particles passed

through the prism and encountered a slit on
the edge, their rotational speed would
change.
 Christiaan Huygens

Huygens’s light is that of a longitudinal wave in

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which the medium moves in the same line as the
wave. Well-Being and Protection

Light travels through aether, which,

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like plenum, also
encompasses all space unoccupied by any other
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 Christiaan Huygens

Reflection was the bouncing of light waves on

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reflecting surface or a material it cannot pass through,
like the echo of sound and ocean waves
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bouncing on a
cliff.
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Refraction was due to the difference in the speed of
wave in two different media.
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 Galileo Galilei

tried to measure the speed of light, but needed

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much longer distance to have a significant
measurement. HeWell-Being
deduced that light travels at
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least ten times faster than sound.

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 Ole Roemer

He was able to measure the speed of light by studying

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the changes in the time of orbit of Io, a moon of
Jupiter. Who usedWell-Being
to work at Royal
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Observation in
Paris, believed that light has a finite speed and so does
not travel instantaneously.
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Thank you