Light

Class Notes

Hitting a surface


When light hits a surface, one or more things can happen. The light may
  

Pass through Be reflected away Be absorbed

Passing through


A material that allows light to pass straight through is said to be transparent



This means that you can clearly see objects on the other side.

If the light is scattered as it passes through (eg frosty glass), the material is said to be transluscent


This means you can see objects through the material, but not clearly

Opaque surfaces


Substances that reflect and/or absorb all the light that lands on them are said to be opaque (pronounced oh-pay-k) oh-payThe energy of any light that is absorbed is transferred to the particles in the substance. Surfaces that absorb light heat up faster than surfaces that reflect it Opaque objects cast shadows

Reflection


Reflection occurs when light bounces off a surface. This is what allows us to see most objects (as most objects dont emit light) Light can be reflected smoothly (eg by a mirror) or it may be scattered (eg by fog or dirty water, or by an uneven surface such as paper

Light
Light travels at 300,000 km/sec (in a vacuum) When it passes through transparent material, it slows down. The denser the material, the slower light travels. e.g. light travels slower in glass than in air because glass is more dense than air. Speed of Light animation

Refraction
When light travels from one substance into another, the light waves may undergo refraction, refraction, which is seen as a bending or change in direction of the light. This bending only occurs if the light hits the surface of the new substance at an angle (i.e. NOT at 90) 90

Some definitions
Incident Ray Angle of Incidence Normal Air Glass

Angle of Refraction Refracted Ray

A normal is an imaginary line drawn at right angles to a surface.

Laws of Refraction
When light enters a denser material, it bends towards the normal. When light enters a less dense material it bends away from the normal Refraction of Light Observing Objects in Water
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Total Internal Reflection

TIR can occur when light is passing from a dense material into a less dense material. As the light leaves, it is bent away from the normal (and some is reflected)

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Total Internal Reflection

As the angle of incidence gets larger, the light bends closer and closer to the surface as it leaves. At the critical angle, angle, the light travels along the surface.

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Total Internal Reflection

At any angle greater than the critical angle, the light is actually reflected back from the surface.

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The Critical Angle

Lenses
A lens is a transparent object with curved surfaces. Two types:

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Convex Lenses
Also called converging lenses

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Cause parallel light rays to converge on a point (called a focus)

Variable Lens Action Lens material Lens Shape

Real Images
Real images are able to be shone onto a screen and are made up of focused light rays. Placing a screen at the focal point of a convex lens allows a real image to be formed.
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Virtual Images
Virtual images are not really there but appear because our brain assumes that light travels in straight lines. e.g. images in mirrors or what you see when using a magnifying glass
Image Formation Virtual Image Formation

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Concave Lenses
Also called diverging lenses

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Cause parallel light rays to diverge, but the light all appears to come from a single point, so this also have a focus.

The Eye
The eye uses a convex lens to focus images onto your retina. Like all convex lenses, the image produced is upside down. Your brain, while analysing the image, turns it the right way up

Structures of the Eye

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How does the eye detect light?

 

The retina has two types of light detectors Rods - detect black and white Cones - detect red, green and blue light


Combinations of these colours form all other colours to give us colour vision.

Dispersion
White light is made up of a mixture of colours called a spectrum. spectrum.

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The splitting of white light into the colours dispersion. that make it up is called dispersion.

The Spectrum
Remember the word: VIBGYOR (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red) Most people cant see indigo in a spectrum
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Electromagnetic Spectrum
Visible light is made up of coloured light. Each colour has a slightly different wavelength

Primary Colours
Mixing all colours of light will create white light. This can also be achieved with just three Red, colours - Red, Green and Blue These colours are called primary colours.
Note that this only applies to coloured light. When dealing with say paint, the primary colours are Red, Blue and Yellow. Yellow.

Primary and Secondary colours

Secondary Colours
Combining primary colours in pairs makes three secondary colours:
Red + Green = Yellow Red + Blue = Magenta Blue + Green = Cyan

Mixing Primary Colors

Mixing Secondary colours

Mixing pairs of secondary colours produces primary colours. Mixing a secondary colour with its opposite primary colour produces white

Mixing Secondary Colours

Coloured filters
A filter is a transparent material which will absorb some colours and allow other colour(s) of light through.
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Why do we see objects as coloured?

Opaque objects do not allow light to pass through them (unlike transparent objects) Pigments on the surfaces of these objects give them their colour. Pigments absorb some colours and reflect others. The colours that are reflected are the colours that we see.

Why do we see colours?

e.g. A red apple looks red because it reflects red and absorbs all the other colours.

Why do we see colours?

Blue objects absorb all colours except blue, which is reflected away for us to see. Magenta objects reflect Blue and Red, but absorb Green.

Why do we see colours?

White objects reflect all colours away. Black objects absorb all colours. This is why black objects heat up more than white objects.

Objects under coloured light

Objects can appear very differently coloured under a variety of lighting conditions. Remember that they can only reflect away colours if those colours are actually falling on them. Objects under different coloured lights