Light and Reflection

Physics B

Characteristics of Light
* Electromagnetic waves.
- Light can be separated into six elementary colors of
the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

Some light invisible to human eye, has a wider

spectrum such as X rays, microwaves and radio waves. They have the same properties as light. Theyre called electromagnetic waves.

oLight is a wave composed of oscillating electric and magnetic

fields. Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves composed of electric and magnetic fields are at right angle to each other, and perpendicular to the direction of wave. oElectromagnetic waves differs in frequencies and wavelengths which builds up the different colors of the light. It also distinguish visible light from the invisible ones such as X rays. oAll electromagnetic waves move at the speed of light oIlluminance as the square of the distance from the source. As the distance from the source increase

* Reflection of light o Change in direction of light is called reflection.

o All substances absorb some incoming light and reflect the rest. oThe texture of the surface affect how its reflected. Light reflected from
smooth shiny surface such as mirrors or water is reflected in one direction specular reflection). Light that is reflected from a rough texture surface such as paper or unpolished wood is reflected in many directions (diffuse reflection).

oIncoming and reflected angles are equal. The angle of reflection and the
angle of incidence are symmetric compared to the normal.

* Flat Mirrors o The simplest mirror is the flat mirror oThe image formed by rays that appear to come from
the image point behind the mirror is called virtual image

oImage location can be predicted with ray diagrams

*
* Concave Spherical Mirror o Concave mirrors can be used to form real images o A spherical mirror with light reflecting from its silvered, concave surface is
called concave spherical mirror. o Concave mirrors are used whenever a magnified image of an object is needed as in the case of dressing-table. o A real image is an image formed when rays of light actually pass through a point on the image. o Image created by spherical mirrors suffer from spherical aberration (some rays do not intersect at the exact point). o Image location can be predicted with the mirror equation : 1/p + 1/q = 2/R o Ray diagrams can be used for concave spherical mirrors o Concave mirrors can produce both real and virtual images

* Convex Spherical Mirror o A convex spherical mirror is a mirror whose reflecting

surface is an outward-curved segment of a sphere

* Parabolic Mirrors oParabolic mirrors eliminate spherical aberration, which

occurs when parallel rays converge away from the mirror focal point. oReflecting telescopes use parabolic mirrors

*
* reflecting surface that bulges inward (away from the incident light). * show different image types depending on the distance between the
object and the mirror.

Object's position (S), focal point (F)

S<F (Object between focal point and mirror)

Image
Virtual Up right Magnified (larger)

Diagram

S=F (Object at focal point)

Reflected rays are parallel and never meet, so no image is formed. In the limit where S approaches F, the image distance approaches infinity, and the image can be either real or virtual and either upright or inverted depending on whether S approaches F from above or below.

F < S < 2F (Object between focus and centre of curvature)

Real Inverted (vertically) Magnified (larger

S = 2F (Object at centre of curvature)

Real Inverted (vertically) Same size Image formed at centre of curvature

S > 2F (Object beyond centre of curvature)

Real Inverted (vertically) Reduced (diminished/smaller) As the distance of the object increases, the imageasymptotically approaches the focal point In the limit where S approaches infinity, the image size approaches zero as the image approaches F

* Mirror Equation : 1/p + 1/q = 1/f * 1/object distance + 1/image distance = 1/focal lenght * Equation for Magnification = image height/object height = image distance/object distance * upright -> + -> virtual * Inverted -> - -> real

Reflection

*
* The bending of light as it travels from one medium to another is
called refraction.

* The angle between the refracted ray and the normal is called
angle of refraction, there is also the angle of incidence.

* Refraction occurs when lights velocity changes.

* Angle is bent toward the normal when light

travels from air to glass, air to water and water to glass.

* Angle is bent away from the normal when light

travels from glass to air, water to air and glass to water.

* Refraction also occurs with waves.

* index of refraction = speed of light in vacuum/speed of light in medium * Index of refraction is always greater than one because light travels
slower in substance than in a vacuum * The larger the index of refraction is, the slower light travels in that substance and the more a light ray will bend when it passes from a vacuum into that material. * Object appears to be in different positions due to refraction. * Wavelenght affects the index of refraction. * Snells law determines the index of refraction.

*
Curved surfaces change the direction of light. When rays of light pass through: - A converging lens (thicker at the middle), they are bent inward. - A diverging lens (thicker at the edge), they are bent outward. Focal length is the image distance for an infinite object distance. Both lens have two focal points but only one focal length.

* Ray diagrams of thin-lens systems help identify image

height and location.

* Rules for drawing reference rays:

Ray From object From to lens converging lens to image Parallel to principal axis To the center of the lens Passes through focal point, F. Passing through focal point, F. From the center of the lens. Parallel to principal axis From diverging lens to image Directed away from local point, F. From the center of the lens. Parallel to principal axis.

Parallel ray

Central ray

Focal ray

Converging lenses can produce real or virtual images of real objects. - As the distant object approaches the focal point the image become larger and farther away. - When the object is at the focal point the light rays from the object are refracted so that they exit the lens parallel to each other - When the object is between a converging lens and its focal point, the light rays from the object diverge when they pass through the lens. - The image created by a diverging lens is always virtual, smaller images.

The thin-lens equation and magnification.

- Applies when the lense thickness is much smaller than its focal
lenght.

- 1/object distance + 1/distance from image to lense = 1/focal lenght - Applies to converging and diverging lenses
Magnification by lens depends on object and image distances.

- Applies to converging and diverging lens - magnification = image height/object height = - (distance from image
to lens/ distance from object to lens)

- Magnitude of magnification < 1, then image > object - If negative the image is real and inverted. - If positive image is upright and virtual.

Eyeglasses and contact lenses

- The cornea acts like a lens, directing light rays toward the
light-sensitive retina in the back of the eye.

- A contact lens is a lens worn over the cornea of the eye.

Combination of Thin Lenses The system can be treated in the following manner:

- The first image of the first lens is calculated. Then the light
approaches the second lens as if it had come from the image formed by the first lens.

- The image formed by the first lens is considered as the object

for the second lens.

- The image formed by the second lens is the final image of the
system. Greater magnification can be achieved by combining two lenses in a device called compound microscope.

- It consists of two lenses : an objective lens near the object

with a focal lenght of less than 1cm and an eyepiece with a focal lenght of a few centimeters.

- The image viewed through a microscope is upside-down with

respect to the actual orientation of the specimen.

Refracting telescopes also use two converging lenses

- A small inverted image is formed at the focal point of the

objective lens, Fo, because the object is essentially at infinity.

- The eyepiece is positioned so that its focal point lies very close
to the focal of the objective lens, where the images is formed.

- The eyepiece acts like

a simple magnifier and allows the viewer to examine the object in detail.

*
Total Internal Reflection
Total Internal Reflection is the complete reflection of light at the boundary of two transparent media; this effect occurs when the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle. Critical angle is the angles of incidence at which the refracted light makes an angle of 90degrees with the normal.

Dispersion
Dispersion is the process of separating polychromatic light into its component wavelength White light passed through a prism produces a visible spectrum.

Rainbows are created by dispersion of light in water droplets. How does it work ? Sunlight is spread into a spectrum upon entering a spherical raidrop, then internally reflected on the back side of the raindrop. The perceived color of each water droplet then depends on the angle at which that drop is viewed.

Lens Aberrations
It results from the fact that the focal points of light rays from the principal axis of a spherical lens are different from the focal points of rays with the same wavelenght passing near the axis. Chromatic aberration is another type of aberration that arisses from the wavelenght dependence of refraction. It can be greatly reduced by the use of a combination of converging and diverging lenses made from two different type of glass.