Master of Arts in Teaching Science

UNIVERSITY OF

CALOOCAN

Light

CITY
Presented by:
MARIA VICTORIA CASERIA
Master of Arts in Teaching Science

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Nature of Light
a form of energy (also known as radiant
energy)
transverse, electromagnetic wave that
are visible to humans eyes
can travel through an empty space or
vacuum
travels in a straight line in one medium
also known as visible light to contrast it
from "ultraviolet light" and "infrared light"

Nature of Light
speed of light in a vacuum is at
299,792,458 m/s or approximately 3.0 x
108 m/s (A.A. Michelson)
speed of light depends upon the medium
through which it travels.
white light can be dispersed into different
colors known as color spectrum
(ROYGBIV)
particle-wave duality (Louis de Broglie)

Properties
of Light

Dispersion
of Light

Dispersion of Light
The splitting up of white light into
seven colors on passing through a
transparent medium like a glass
prism is called as dispersion of
white light. Visible light is actually
made up of different colors. The
band of colors produced by light
when dispersed by a prism is called
a color spectrum.

Dispersion of Light

Dispersion of Light
Each color bends by a different
amount when refracted by glass.
That's why visible light is split, or
dispersed, into different colors when
it passes through a lens or prism.
Shorter wavelength, like violet, bend
the most. Longer wavelength, like
red light, bend the least.

Dispersion of Light

Reflection
of Light

Reflection of Light
When light rays traveling in a
medium reaches the boundary of
other medium, they turn back to the
first medium. This phenomenon of
turning back of light into the same
medium after striking the boundary of
other medium is called reflection of
light.

Reflection of Light

Laws of Reflection
1. The angle of incident is equal to the
angle of reflection i.e. <i = <r
2. The incident ray, the reflected ray
and the normal lie on the same plane.

Two Types of Reflection

1. Regular Reflection
When a beam of parallel light rays
is incident on a smooth and plane
surface, the reflected rays will also
be parallel.

Two Types of Reflection

2. Irregular or Diffused Reflection
A beam of parallel rays incident on
the surface will reflect in different
directions.

Reflection of Light

Refraction
of Light

Refraction of Light
Refraction, or bending of light,
occurs as light passes from one
medium into another medium with a
different refractive index. Light
travels faster in a less optically
dense medium than in a denser one.

Refraction of Light
Refraction is an important
characteristic of lenses, allowing
them to focus a beam of light onto a
single point, and is also responsible
for a variety of familiar phenomena,
such as the apparent distortion of
objects partially submerged in water.

Refraction of Light

Laws of Refraction
1. The incident ray, the refracted ray,
and the normal to the interface, all lie
in the same plane.
2. Snells Law: For the given two
media, whatever the direction of the
incident light, the ratio of the sine of
the angle of incidence (sin i) to the
sine of the angle of refraction (sin r) is
the index of refraction n.

Laws of Refraction
n = sin i/ sin r = v1/ v2 or
sin i/ sin r = n2/ n1
n1 sin 1 = n2 sin 2
where 1 is the angle subtended
between the incident ray and the
normal to the interface, and 2 is the
angle subtended between the refracted
ray and the normal to the interface.

Laws of Refraction
The quantities n1 and n2 are termed
for the refractive indices of media 1
and 2, respectively.
Thus, the law of refraction
predicts that a light ray always
deviates more towards the normal in
the optically denser medium: i.e., the
medium with the higher refractive
index.

Laws of Refraction

Laws of Refraction
Light travels faster in a less optically
dense medium than in an optically
denser one. As a consequence, light is
bent towards the normal as it moves
from the less optically dense medium to
the optically denser one. A mediums
optical density determines the speed of
light in that medium. A measure of the
optical density of a material is its index
of refraction.

Laws of Refraction
The index of refraction of a material is
the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum
to the speed of light in the material or
n = speed of light in vacuum = c
speed of light in material v
Thus, the higher a mediums optical
density, the higher its index of refraction.
The index of refraction indicates the
extent of the bending of light ray.

Refraction of Light

Total Internal
Reflection

Total Internal Reflection

Total internal reflection occurs if,
as light passes from a dense to a
less dense medium, its angle of
incidence is greater than the critical
angle. Thus, the refracted ray cannot
get out of the boundary between the
two different media (trapping of
light). This phenomenon is applied in
fiber optics and diamond cutting.

Total Internal
Reflection
Diamonds and other cut glass
present many angular surfaces,
and light entering them is
repeatedly reflected by the
different facets before it finally
emerges. This internal reflection of
light gives these stones the glitter
that adds beauty to them.

TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION
One very important application of
the principle is in FIBER OPTICS.
Optical fibers are very thin glass
and fine plastic tubes which are
flexible

TOTAL INTERNAL
REFLECTION
Optical fibers are used to trasmit
telephone conversation. Demo
decorative lamps use threadlike
plastic fibers to carry light from a
source at one end to the other
end, producing many tiny thin
strands of light that sway in the air

 Medical field- in the detection of an

ulcer inside a persons stomach. A
small lens is attached at the other
end which focuses at the lighted
stomach. The image of the
patients stomach is seen and
examined by the doctorENDOSCOPY

Total Internal Reflection

Diffraction
of Light

Diffraction of Light
Diffraction is the slight bending of light
as it passes around the edge of an object
or small openings. The amount of bending
depends on the relative size of the
wavelength of light to the size of the
opening. If the opening is much larger than
the light's wavelength, the bending will be
almost unnoticeable. However, if the two
are closer in size or equal, the amount of
bending is considerable, and easily seen
with the naked eye.

Diffraction of Light

Polarization
of Light

Polarization of Light
Polarization is a process by which a
transverse wave is made to vibrate in
one direction only.
The most common method of
polarization involves the use of
a Polaroid filter. Polaroid filters are
made of a special material that is
capable of blocking one of the two
planes of vibration of an
electromagnetic wave.

Polarization of Light

Colors

Color
Color may be defined as a
property of light waves which
depends on their frequency and
wavelength. The colors of objects are
the result of the interaction of light
with the materials. The color of
opaque objects is the color they
reflect and which reaches our eyes.
On the other hand, the colors of
transparent materials are the colors

How do our eyes

perceived colors?

How do our eyes

perceived colors?
Our eye has a retina that composed of
special cells called rods and cones. Rods
are very sensitive but cannot detect color.
Cones, however, are sensitive to color and
enable us to distinguish color.
Chemicals in the cones are sensitive to
red, green, and blue light, the primary
colors. Each cone is sensitive to a particular
primary color. When a mixture of different
colors of light enters the eye, we see mixture
as a single color.

How do our eyes

perceived colors?

Color of Opaque Objects

When white light falls on an opaque
object which does not transmit light, one
of the three things happens:
1. If all the colors in white light are
reflected, the object appears white.
2. If some of the colors are reflected, the
object appears colored.
3. If all the colors are absorbed by the
object and no colors of white light are
reflected, the object appears black.

Color of Transparent Objects

Transparent materials such as colored
plastics, cellophane, or glass are used as
filters of light. In theaters, they are placed
over spotlights to produce any desired
color. These materials adopt the color
subtraction. When white light is passed
through a colored filter, a number of colors
are removed. For example, when green
filter is used, it allows green to pass
through and some blue and a little yellow
colors.

Color Subtraction
R
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G
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Color Combinations in Light

Color Combinations in
Pigments and Dyes

Color Phenomena
in the Sky

Rainbow

Rainbow
Rainbow is formed due to dispersion,
reflection, and refraction of light rays
from the sun. When the suns rays strike
drops of water, a color spectrum
(ROYGBIV) can be formed. The drops of
water act as prism where white light is
disperse into different colors carrying
different wavelengths and frequencies.
Colors of a primary rainbow follows the
sequence of red - orange - yellow - green blue - indigo - violet.

Rainbow
As a ray of light enters the water drop, it is
first refracted and then dispersed in a water
drop. When light rays are internally reflected
once, a primary rainbow is formed.

Rainbow
Double internal reflection will result to
formation of larger rainbow or secondary
rainbow but with the red and violet colors
reversed. Because of the two internal
reflection within the falling raindrops, more
light is absorbed; as a result, the
secondary rainbow is always fainter than
the primary. In most cases, the upper arc is
the secondary rainbow and the lower arc is
the primary rainbow.

Blue Sky

Blue Sky
Most of the color formations are
the result of subtraction and addition
of light. In the blue sky, the blue color
is a result from selective scattering of
the colors of light from the sun by
gas molecules in the atmosphere
(Rayleigh scattering effect). The
color scattered by these molecules
depends on the size of the molecules
themselves.

Blue Sky
Our atmosphere is chiefly made up
of nitrogen and oxygen molecules.
These molecules have the property to
scatter colors based on their
wavelengths. Among the different
colors in white light from the sun,
violet is scattered the most by oxygen
and nitrogen molecules because it
has the shortest wavelength.

Blue Sky
The least deviated color is red
because it has the longest
wavelength. Since our eyes are most
sensitive to the primary colors red,
green and blue (RGB), the violet color
will be hardly recognized by the cones
of the eyes retina predominating the
blue color over the violet. This
scattering effect explained the
phenomenon of blue sky.

Red Sunset

Red Sunset
Red sunset follows the rule of color
subtraction. As the day progresses, the sun
moves lower in the sky resulting longer
path of light to travel in the atmosphere
going to the Earth. Sunsets are reddened
because for sun positions which are very
low or just below the horizon.
Consequently, the light passing at grazing
incidence upon the earth passes through a
greater thickness of air than when it is
overhead like noon time.

Red Sunset
As a result, more and more blue
and violet colors are scattered in the
atmosphere. The removal of violet
and blue colors leaves light that
reaches the Earths surface redder
and redder. Just before the sun
disappears from view, its actual
position is about a diameter below the
horizon, the light having been bent
by refraction to reach our eyes.

Red Sunset
Since short wavelengths are more
efficiently scattered by Rayleigh
scattering, more of them are scattered
out of the beam of sunlight like violet,
indigo, and blue lights, before it
reaches our eyes. The sun progresses
color from yellow to orange and finally
to red at sunset.
This phenomenon can also be seen
at sunrise.

Thank you for

listening...

God bless!

References

http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/
http://www.citycollegiate.com/chapter14_Xa.htm
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/blusky.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/atmos/redsun.html
http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/302l/lectures/node128.html
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/lightandcolor/refraction.html
http://www.weather.gov.hk/education/edu06nature/ele_cloudcolours_
e.htm
http://amazing_space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/less
on/glossary/term-full.php?t=dispersion
Navaza, Delia C. and Bienvenido J. Valdes. You and the Natural
world Series - Physics. 2nd ed. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing
House, Inc., 1996
University of the Philippines National Institute for Science and
Mathematics Education Development. Physics - Science and
Technology Textbook for Fourth Year, rev. ed. Mandaluyong City:
Book Media Press, Inc., 2004