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VISUAL ACUITY
Most people is familiar with the term 20/20 vision but most of them do not know what it means. Visual acuity simply means
clarity or sharpness of vision. It is expressed usually in fraction. The numerator is the standard testing distance, 20feet in almost all
countries and 6meters in Britain. The denominator represents the distance in feet or meters at which a person with normal vision is
able to see clearly an object seen by another at 20feet or 6meters.
The closest distance which an object can be seen clearly by the eye is called the near point of the eye. The near point for young adults
with normal vision is 25cm, for children around 10cm, and for the aged, 50cm or more. The far point of the eye is the farthest distance
at which an object can be seen clearly. The far point of the normal eye is taken as infinity. Thus, a normal healthy eye can see objects
as close as 25cm or very distant from it.
Transparent materials allow light to pass through (clear water, air and clear glass). Opaque materials do not allow the passage of
light (human body, stones and wood). Translucent body scatters light to pass through it. We see objects by the light they emit, reflect
or transmit (frosted glass).
Path of Light
A narrow beam of light is called ray. A ray of light is usually represented by a straight line with an arrow head pointing to the direction of
travel. This is because light travels in a straight line in one medium.
What happens to light when it meets a boundary?
Opaque materials can be smooth or rough. A smooth surface such as mirror reflects light in only on direction hence you see an image
only when you are in front of the mirror, it is known as regular or specular reflection. Most of the objects around us have rough
surfaces, they reflect light in all directions and this is termed irregular or diffuse reflection. Diffuse reflection is more common than
regular reflection. The walls, ceiling, floors and most of the objects inside our room, except mirror, are rough surfaces and scatter light
incident upon them. This is why a small light bulb can light up a big room, illumination of the room may be improved by light colored
paint because it reflects more light than dark colors.
Refraction: Bent pencil and larger view of fish under water. When light passes from one transparent medium to another at an angle
other than 90⁰ with the boundary, it bends. This phenomenon is called refraction, this is due to the change in speed of light as it passes
from one medium to another.
Reflection of Light
When light is incident on a surface, it be reflected, transmitted, refracted, scattered or
absorbed.
Reflection is the turning back of light into same medium after striking a surface. The
ray that strikes the surface is called incident ray. The ray that rebounds from the
surface is called the reflected ray. A line perpendicular to the surface at the point of
incidence is called the normal. The angle between the incident ray and the normal is called the angle of incidence. This is represented
as . The angle between the reflected ray and the normal is called the angle of reflection, represented by .
Handout in General Physics 2-LIGHT Mary Rose Caccam Parungao, Teacher III
The Laws of reflection are the following:
1. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
2. The incident ray, the normal and the reflected ray lie in one plane.
Sample Problem: A ray is incident on a surface at 43⁰. Find the angle between the
Incident ray and reflected ray.
Answer: By the law of reflection, the angle of reflection is also 43⁰. Therefore,
the angle between the incident ray and reflected ray is 86⁰.
Practice Problem: A ray of light strikes a surface and is reflected so that the angle between the incident ray and reflected ray is 30⁰.
(a) What is the angle of incidence? (b) What is the angle of reflection? (c) If the surface is rotated so as to increase the angle of
incidence by 1⁰, what is the angle between the incident ray and reflected ray? (d) If the surface is rotated so that the angle of incidence
is decreased by 1⁰, what then is the angle between the two rays?
MIRRORS
Two types of Mirrors:
Plane Mirror is one with flat surface.
Spherical Mirror is a mirror whose reflecting surface
is taken from the surface of a sphere.
Spherical mirror can either be concave or convex.
Concave mirror curves inward in the direction of
incident
Ray.
Convex mirror bulges outward to the incident rays.
The ordinary mirror at home where we can see reality-the exact image of ourselves is a plane mirror. A shimmy Christmas ball, the
rear-view mirrors in cars and wide range mirrors in supermarkets designed to catch shoplifters are convex mirrors. Shaving and
dentist’s mirror are concave mirrors.
DID YOU KNOW??? The first mirror was a clear, calm water of a river or a pond where our ancestors saw reflections of themselves,
trees, hills and the like. Polished metals or stones are early man-made mirrors. In the bible brass mirrors are mentioned. The Greeks,
Egyptians and Romans had bronze and silver mirrors. The crude form of mirror made of a glass plate with mercury or tin as a reflecting
film was introduced 1300. Juston von Lieberg in 1836 made use of metallic silver instead of mercury. Most of our household mirrors are
of this type. Mirrors used in scientific works uses aluminum instead of silver as the reflecting film. Aluminum is as efficient as silver and
less prone to oxidation and tarnishing.
Plane mirror images are virtual, upright, the same size as the object, the
same distance behind the mirror as the object in front of the mirror, and
laterally inverted. Laterally inverted means the left of the object becomes
right of the image and vice versa.
DID YOU KNOW??? In general, to view one’s full image in a plane mirror,
the required height for the mirror is only half of the person’s height,
regardless of how far he stands from the mirror.
When parallel rays strike a concave mirror, the rays will be reflected and meet at the point
called the principal focus. Hence, we say that concave mirror is converging. A convex
mirror is a diverging mirror is a diverging mirror because when parallel rays strike a convex
mirror, the reflected rays spread out and never come to a focus. However, if the reflected
rays are extended, they appear or seem to come from a single point behind the mirror. This
point is called the principal focus of the convex mirror.
Handout in General Physics 2-LIGHT Mary Rose Caccam Parungao, Teacher III
REFRACTION
Refraction is the change in the direction of light when it passes from one medium to another of different optical density. Optical density
should not be confused with mass density (mass per volume). Optical density has something to do with the transparency of a
substance to light. Light travels slowly in an optically dense substance.
The index of refraction of a substance is the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to the speed of light in the substance.
n=c/v, when n is the index of refraction, c is the speed of light in a vacuum and v is the speed of light in a substance. A substance is
said to be optically denser than another if its index of refraction is greater. The higher the index of refraction, the slower light travels in
that substance.
Index of refraction of materials for yellow light:
Air- 1.0003 Ice at 0⁰C- 1.309 Water- 1.33 x10-9 Fused quartz- 1.46
Glass (crown)- 1.523 Sapphire- 1.77 Zirconium- 2.2 x10-9 Diamond- 2.419
Sample Problem: A zirconium plate (n=2.2) has a thickness of 3.0x10-3. Find the speed of light in zirconium at the time it takes light to
pass perpendicularly through the plate.
n=c/v 2.2=3.00x108m/s/ v v=1.40x108
To solve for the time (t), divide the thickness by velocity v. (v=d/t)
t=3.0x10-3/1.40x108= 2.20.40x10-11s
Practice Exercise: Calculate the speed of light in diamond.
LAWS OF REFRACTION
When light passes from one medium to another of different optical density, it is refracted according
to some laws.
Ray AB is the incident ray. Ray BC is the refracted ray. Angel i and angle r are the angle of
incidence and the angle of refraction, respectively.
1. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal lie in one plane.
2. When a ray of light passes obliquely from an optically denser medium to a less dense medium, it is refracted away from the
normal.
When a ray of light passes obliquely from an optically less dense medium to denser medium, it is refracted toward the normal.
At the perpendicular incidence, no bending of light ray occurs.
Stellar scintillation (commonly known as twinkling of star), mirage and longer day time are results of the refraction of the
light as it passes through the layers of air having different temperatures in the atmosphere.
Refraction of light is responsible for image formation in our eyes and lenses.
Total internal reflection is also utilized in the design of chandeliers. Crystal glass, instead of ordinary glass, is often used
because it has a higher index of refraction. The higher index of refraction and the intricate cut of the glass pieces produce
the sparkling we note in chandelier.
SPHERICAL LENSES
A spherical lens is a piece of glass or transparent material having at least one-spherical surface. Spherical lenses are
divided into convex and concave lens. Lenses that are thicker at the middle than at the edges are convex lenses. Convex
lenses are converging lenses. Lenses that are thicker at the edges than at the middle are concave lenses. Concave lenses
are diverging. Concave lenses are further subdivided into double convex, plano-convex, and concav0-convex (convex
Handout in General Physics 2-LIGHT Mary Rose Caccam Parungao, Teacher III
meniscus). The concave lenses may be double concave, plano-concave, or convexo-concave (concave meniscus). Convex
lenses are used to correct farsightedness. Concave lenses are used to correct nearsightedness.