Force, Motion & Energy

(Module 6: Light)
 Key Questions of the Module
• How are refraction and dispersion
demonstrated in light?
• Among the different colors of light, which is
bent the most and the least?
• Why do we see spectacular events in the sky like
rainbows, red sunset and blue sky?
What is Light?
•Light is a wave, or rather acts
like a wave.
•How do we know?
•Reflection
•Refraction
•Dispersion
•Diffraction
© 2003 Mike Maloney 3
What is Light
•Light is a special type of wave
•What we know as light or VISIBLE
LIGHT is actually a type of
something called
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION.
•So, what is electromagnetic
radiation and electromagnetic
waves? © 2003 Mike Maloney 4
Electromagnetic Waves
• When something creates energy it also
emits radiation. Depending on the
amount of energy, the object will emit
different types of electromagnetic
radiation.
• When we studied mechanical waves, they
were all transferred through a medium.
What medium is light transferred through?
• LIGHT DOES NOT NEED ONE!
© 2003 Mike Maloney 5
Electromagnetic Waves
•Electromagnetic waves are special in
the fact that they do not need a
medium to propagate through.
•But what is creating the
disturbance? What is emitting this
energy?
•ELECTRONS
© 2003 Mike Maloney 6
Electromagnetic Waves
• Electrons in materials are vibrated and
emit energy in the form of photons,
which propagate across the universe.
• Photons have no mass, but are pure
energy.
• Electromagnetic Waves are waves that
are made up of these “photons”.
• When these photons come in contact
with boundaries, E-M waves interact like
other waves would.
© 2003 Mike Maloney 7
 Electromagnetic Waves
• Electromagnetic waves are everywhere.
• Light is only a small part of them

– Radios – Radiation
– TVs – Lasers
– Microwaves – CD/DVD
– Light (Visible/UV/InfraRed) players
– X-Rays

© 2003 Mike Maloney 8

Electromagnetic Spectrum

© 2003 Mike Maloney 11

• Lets find the corresponding frequency ranges for a
few of the groups of E-M waves.

© 2003 Mike Maloney 12

Energy in E-M Waves
• Which waves have more energy, Radio waves
or gamma waves?
• The greater the frequency of an E-M wave,
the more crests pass a point in a certain
amount of time, therefore the more photons
pass that point.
• This means that more energy moves past that
point in a certain amount of time or that the
wave contains more energy.
© 2003 Mike Maloney 13
Back to Light
•So, why can we only
see a small portion of
these E-M waves?

© 2003 Mike Maloney 14

Our Eyes

© 2003 Mike Maloney 15

Visible Light
• We now know what we see is part of
the electromagnetic spectrum. We
know that the light waves enter our
eye, and stimulate parts of it that cause
a electrical impulse to be sent to the
brain which creates this visual image.
• But everything does not emit radiation.
How do we see those things? And why
cant we see a window?
© 2003 Mike Maloney 16
Seeing things
• We know that when waves run into a boundary
they are partially transmitted and partially
reflected.
• Light behaves as a wave, so it to is reflected.
• Therefore, an object does not need to emit
photons itself to be seen, it just has to reflect light
back to our eyes where we can detect it.
• Objects that do not allow light to pass through
them are called opaque.
• Objects that allow light to pass through them are
considered transparent.
• Objects in between are called translucent.
© 2003 Mike Maloney 17
Color
• Different objects may emit different
wavelengths of E-M radiation, so we
would see that light as different colors.
• But why do we see colors in objects that
reflect light? If you shine a white light
on my clothes, and it gets reflected why
doesn’t all of my clothes appear white?
• When I shine white light through a
colored piece of plastic, why does it
change color?
© 2003 Mike Maloney 18
Color
• The light we see is know as visible or
white light – although it is not that
simple.
• The light is not really white, the white
we see is a combination of all the colors
of the rainbow.
• Remember R-O-Y G. B-I-V from art class.
• When all of these light waves are
combined we see white light.
© 2003 Mike Maloney 19
Color Reflection
• So if we see something as WHITE, that
means …
• It reflected back all the wavelengths of light
to our eyes
• If we see something as RED or BLUE
• It reflected only the RED or only the BLUE
wavelengths
• The others were absorbed.
• And if we see something as black?
• It did not reflect back any of the light.
© 2003 Mike Maloney 20
Reflection of Light
Definitions
•Luminous objects – generate their own
light (the sun)
•Illuminated objects – reflect light (the
moon)
•Line of Sight – a line from an object or
image to your eyes (light from the
object travels along this line to your
eyes)
Slide 22
Rays of Light
• Incident Ray – leaves the
object and strikes the mirror

• Reflected Ray – leaves

mirror and strikes your eye

• The reflected ray is on the

line of sight from the image
to your eye.

Slide 23
Law of Reflection
•Angle of incidence equals angle of
reflection.

Slide 24
 Law of Reflection
Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection
Law of Reflection
• Normal – line
perpendicular to the
mirror surface

• Angle of incidence –
angle between incident
ray and normal

• Angle of reflection –
angle between reflected
ray and normal

qi = qr
Slide 26
Law of Reflection
Curved Mirrors

•Angle of Incidence
is equal to the
angle of reflection
Types of Curved Mirrors
•A concave mirror is silvered
on the inside of the sphere.
•A concave mirror is also
called a converging mirror
because it converges
parallel light.
•A convex mirror is silvered
on the outside of the bowl.
•A convex mirror is also
called a diverging mirror
because it diverges parallel
light.
Refraction of Light
 Refraction
• When a wave crosses a boundary
between Medium 1 and Medium 2,
the wave changes direction because
it changes velocity.

• Frequency remains constant.

• Velocity changes as a result of

wavelength change.
Refraction
 Example
Incident
Ray Less Rigid
Medium

More Rigid
Medium
Refracted ray
bends
towards
the normal.
Refracted Ray
Dispersion of white light
Speed of light in glass depends on frequency
(colour).
Psychology of Color…
Colors and Wavelength
Colors and Frequency
Colors and Energy
In short…
 Light transmission
• Transparent materials transmit light, like
windows.
• Remember all light has same speed in vacuum?
• Different frequencies have different speeds in
transparent materials – that causes a prism to
separate the colors.
• Colored glass or plastic only transmits the color
that it is; it absorbs or reflects the other colors.
Thank you...