THE HUMAN EYE AND THE COLOURFUL WORLD

 THE HUMAN EYE:-

 The human eye is an instrument which enables us to not only look at objects but also to appreciate the beauty behind
the object. It has a lens in its structure. It is nature’s gift to living producing sensation of vision.
The human eye is one of the most valuable and sensitive sense organs. It enables us to see the wonderful world and
the colours around us.
 The main parts of the human eye include:
 Cornea:- It is a thin membrane through which light enters. It forms the transparent bulge on the front of eyeball. Most
of the refraction occurs at the outer surface of the cornea.
 Eyeball:- It is a convex lens, approximately spherical in shape, with a diameter of about 2.3cm. It can alert its curvature
with help of ciliary muscles.
 Iris:- It is a dark muscular diaphragm that controls the size of pupil. It is behind the cornea. It helps in accommodation
of light by changing the size of the pupil.
 Pupil:-It regulates and controls the amount of light entering the eye. It is the black opening between aquesous
humour and lens. Black in colour. Light entering cannot exit.
 Crystalline eye lens:- It provides the focused real and inverted image of the object on the retina. It is composed of a
fibrous, jelly like material. This is convex lens that converges light at retina.
 Ciliary muscles:- It helps to change the curvature of eye lens and hence changes its focal length so that we can see the
object clearly placed at different positions.
 Retina:-It is a thin membrane with large number of light sensitive cells. There are two types of photoreceptors in the
human retina (a) Rods and (b) Cones.
(a) Rods are responsible for vision al low light levels. They do not mediate color vision.
(b) Cones are active at higher light levels. They are capable of color vision.
 When image is formed at retina, light sensitive cells get activated and generate electrical signal. These signals are sent
to brain via optic nerve. Brain analyse these signals after which we perceive object as they are
 The vitreous homour:- It is the clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eyeball of humans
and other vertebrate.
 The aquesous humour:- It is a transparent, watery fluid similar to plasma, but containing low protein concentrations.
 Sclera:- It is the white part of the eye that composed of fibrous tissue that protects the inner workings of the eye.
 Optic Nerve:- It is a bundle of nerve fibers that carries message from the eyes to the brain.
 Choroid:- It is a layer of blood vessels between the retina and sclera. It supplies blood to the brain.

 Working of Human Eye:-

Light rays coming from the object to be seen enter the eye through cornea fall on the eye lens through the pupil of the
eye. The eye lens being convex, forms a real, inverted smaller image of the object on retina. The retina has very large
number of sensitive cells in the form of Rods and Cones. The rod type cells respond to the intensity of light while cone
type cells respond to the colour of light. These cells activated by the light falling on the retina and generate electrical
signals, which are sent to the brain via optic nerve. The brain processes this information so that we perceive object as

they are. i.e without inversion.

 Power of Accommodation:-
 The process by which the ciliary muscles change the focal length of an eye lens to focus distant or near objects clearly
on the retina is called the accommodation of the eye.
Ciliary Muscles

Relaxed Muscles Contract Muscles

a) Eye lens becomes thin. a) Eye lens becomes thick.
b) Increases the focal length b) Decreases the focal length.
c) Enable us to see distant object clearly. c) Enable us to see nearby object clearly.

Near point of the eye:- It is 25cm for normal eye. The minimum distance at which object can be seen most distinctly
without strain.
 Far point of the eye:- It is infinity for normal eye. It is the farthest point up to which the eye can see objects clearly.
 Defects of Vision and their Correction:-
 A normal eye can see all objects over a wide range of distance i.e. from 25cm to infinity. But due to certain
abnormalities the eye is not able to see objects over such a wide range of distances and such an eye is said to be
defective. Some of the defects of vision are:
 Cataract
 Myopia or Near sightedness
 Hypermetropia or Far sightedness
 Presbyopia
 Astigmatism
 Blind spot
 Colour Blindness
 Night Blindness
 Cataract:- The image cannot be seen distinctly because eye lens become milky and cloudy. This condition is known as
cataract, it can cause complete or partial loss of vision. It comes in old age.
This can be corrected by surgical removal of extra growth (cataract surgery).
 Myopia (Near Sightedness):- It is that defect of the eye due to which an eye cannot see the distant objects clearly but
can see nearby object clearly. It is caused (a) due to excessive curvature of eye lens means eye lens becomes thick and
its focal length decreases and (b) due to elongation of the eyeball.

 Correction:- This defect is corrected by using a concave lens of appropriate power.

 Hypermetropia (far sightedness):-It is that defect of the eye due to which an eye cannot see the nearby objects clearly
but through it can see the distant objects clearly. It is caused (a) due to the focal length of the eye lens is too long or
increase (b) due to the eyeball being too short.
 Correction:- This defect is corrected by using a convex lens of appropriate power.
 Presbyopia:-
 Presbyopia occurs at the age of 40 years and its main symptom is reduced near vision. As we become old, the power
of accommodation of the eye usually decreases, the near point gradually recedes away. This defect is called
presbyopia, a special kind of hypermetropia. Person may suffer from both myopia and hypermetropia.
 It is caused due to gradual weakening of ciliary muscles and decreasing the flexibility of the eye lens.

 Correction:-This defect is corrected by using a bifocal lens with appropriate power. Bifocal lens consist of both
concave and convex lens, upper position consist of concave lens and lower potion consist of convex lens action of light
through a prism.
 Astigmatism:- It is that defect of the eye due to which a person cannot focus on both horizontal and vertical lines to
appear blurry.This defect arises due to the irregularities in the surface of cornea.
 Correction:-This defect is corrected by superimposing cylindrical lenses upon the spherical shape of spectacle lenses.

 Blind spot:-A small region of retina where the optic nerve enters the eyeball is insensitive to light and it is called blind
spot.
 Colour Blindness:- It is that defect of the eye due to which a person is unable to distinguish between certain colours is
known as colour blindness.
 Night Blindness:- Some person have difficulty in seeing the objects in dim light during night. This defect is called night
blindness. It is caused due to lack of vitamin A in food and due to improper functioning of rods shaped cells.
 Refraction of Light Through a Prism:-
 Prism is a transparent optical element, which refracts light. An optical object to be defined as prism must have at least
two faces with an angle between them. A triangular glass prism has two triangular bases and three rectangular lateral
surfaces. These surfaces are inclined to each other. The angle between its two lateral faces is called the angle of the
prism.
 PE is the incident ray, EF is the refracted ray and FS is the emergent ray. A ray of light is entering from air to glass at
the first surface AB. So, the light ray on refraction has bent towards the normal. At the second surface AC, the light ray
has entered from glass to air. Hence it bent at away from normal. The peculiar shape of the prism makes the emergent
ray bend at an angle to the direction of the incident ray. This angle is called the angle of deviation. In this case D is the
angle of deviation.
 The angle between the incident ray and emergent ray is called the Angle of Deviation(D).

 Dispersion of White Light By a Glass Prism:-

 When white light passes through a prism it splits up into constituent colours. This phenomenon is called dispersion.
 When a ray of light enters the prism, it bends towards the normal; because light is entering from a rarer medium to a
denser medium. Similarly, when the light emerges from the prism, it follows the laws of refraction of light. Due to the
angle of prism and due to different wavelength of different components of white light, the emergent ray gets
segregated into different colours. Finally, a colourful band of seven colours is obtained. This phenomenon is called
dispersion of white light by the prism.

 Violet is deviated the most while red the least giving rise to display of colours.
 The coloured pattern obtained on a screen after dispersion of light is called spectrum.
 ISSAC NEWTON:- He was the first, who obtained spectrum of sunlight by using glass prism. He tried to split the spectrum
of white light more by using another similar prism, but he could not get any more colours.
He repeated the experiment using second prism in an inverted position with respect to the first prism.
Allowed all the colours of spectrum to pass through second prism. He found white light emerges on the other side of
the second prism. He concluded that sun is made up of seven visible colour ‘VIBGYOR’.
 RAINBOW:-A rainbow is a natural spectrum appearing in the sky after a rain shower. It is caused by dispersion of sunlight
by tiny water droplets, present in the atmosphere. A rainbow is always formed in opposite direction to that of the sun. The
water droplets act like a small prism. They refract and disperse the incident sunlight, then reflect it internally, and finally
refract it again, when it comes out of the raindrop. Due to the dispersion of light and internal reflection different colours
reach the observers eye.

 Atmospheric Refraction:-
 Atmospheric refraction is the shift in apparent direction of a celestial object caused by the refraction of light rays as
they pass through Earth’s atmosphere.
 Apparent Star Position:- It is due to atmospheric refraction of star light. The temperature and density of different
layers of atmosphere keeps varying. Hence we have different medium. Distant star act as point source of light. When
the star light enter the earth’s atmosphere it undergoes refraction continuously, due to changing refractive i.e from
rarer to denser, it bends towards the normal. Due to this the apparent position of the star is different from actual
position. The star appears higher than its actual position.

 Twinkling of Star:- It is also due to atmospheric refraction. Distant star act like a point of source of light. As the beam
of star light keeps deviating from its path, the apparent position of star keeps on changing because physical condition
of earth’s atmosphere is not stationary. Hence, the amount of light enters our eyes fluctuate some time bright and
some time faint. This is the “Twinkling effect of Star”.
 Advance Sunrise and Delayed Sunset:-
 The sun is visible to us about 2 minutes before the sunrise, and about 2 minutes after the actual sunset because
of atmospheric refraction. When the rays from the Sun hit the atmosphere they get refracted. Due to this the sun
appears to be at an apparent position which suggests that it has already risen. The same happens when the sun
sets. This entire sequence is a result of difference in the refractive index of atmosphere.

 Scattering of Light:-
 It occurs when light waves pass through an imperfect medium (such as air filled with particles of some sort) and
are deflected from a straight path.
 Tyndall Effect:-
 The phenomenon of scattering of light by the colloidal particles gives rise to Tyndall Effect. This phenomenon is
seen when a fine beam of sunlight enters a smoke-filled room through a small hole. Thus, scattering of light
makes the particles visible.
 Tyndall Effect can also be observed when sunlight passes through a canopy of a dense forest.
 The colour of the scattered light depends on the size of the scattering particles. Very fine particles scatter mainly
blue light while particles of larger size scatter light of longer wavelength (red).
 If the size of the scattering particles is large enough, then the scattered light may even appear white.

 Why is the colour of the clear Sky Blue?

 The molecules of air and other fine particles in the atmosphere have size smaller than the wavelength of visible
light. These are more effective in scattering light of shorter wavelengths at the blue end than light of longer
wavelengths at the red end. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the fine particles in air scatter the
blue colour (shorter wavelength) more strongly than red. The scattered blue light enters our eyes.
 If the earth had no atmosphere, there would not have been any scattering. Then, the sky would have lookedark.
 The sky appears dark to passengers flying at very high altitude, as scattering is not prominent at such height.
 Colour of The Sky at Sunrise and Sunset:-
 Light from the Sun near the horizon passes through thicker layers of air and higher distance in the earth’s
atmosphere before reaching our eyes. However, light from the Sun overhead would travel relatively shorter
distance. At noon, the sun appears white as only a little of the blue and violet colours are scattered. Near the
horizon, most of the blue light and shorter wavelengths are scattered away by the particles. Therefore, the light
that reaches our eyes is of longer wavelengths. This give rise to the reddish appearance of the sun.