HolisticTuition

Home
Form 4

Physics
Next >

The study of matter

Chapter 5:
1 End
Light
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Physics: Chapter 5
Home

Objectives:
< Back (what you will learn)
Next >

1) understanding Light

2) understanding the Laws

2 End
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Light Reflection
Light travels in straight lines.
When light is incident on a surface, it is reflected.

< Back Laws of reflection of light

Next > a. The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal are in the same plane.
b. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

Characteristics of images formed by plane mirror

a. Same size as object
b. Virtual
c. Laterally inverted
3 End d.
e.
Upright.
The image is as far behind the mirror as the object is in front
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Refraction
When light travels from one medium to another medium of
different optical density, its speed changes.
This causes the change in its direction and the light bends.
The bending of light is called refraction.

< Back

Next > Laws of refraction

a. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal lie on the same plane.
b. The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to sine of angle of refraction is a
constant (Snell’s Law).

When light travels from an optically less dense to a denser medium,

it bends towards the normal.

4 End
When light travels from an optically denser to a less dense medium,
it bends away from the normal.
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Refraction
Refractive index of medium X may be found by the following:

Sine (angle of incidence)

n =
Sine (angle of refraction)

< Back Velocity of light in air

n =
Next > Velocity of light in medium X

Actual depth
n =
Apparent depth

1
n = , C = critical angle
5 End Sine C
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Mirage
Mirage
A naturally-occurring optical phenomenon, in which light rays are bent to
produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky.

The interpretation of the image is up to the fantasy of human mind, and is

usually mistaken for a small puddle of water.
< Back

Next > The word comes to English via the French ‘mirage’, and from the Latin
‘mirare’, meaning 'to appear, to seem'.

It has the same root as for mirror. Like a mirror, a mirage shows images of
things which are elsewhere.

The principal physical cause of a mirage, however, is refraction rather than

reflection.

6 End
It is also caused by the phenomenon of total internal reflection which is
the result of refraction.
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Mirage
Inferior Mirage
Cold air is denser than warm air, and has a greater refractive index. As light
passes from colder air above to warmer air below it bends away from the
normal, resulting in an inferior image for the sky above.

< Back

Next >

Superior Mirage
Where the air near the ground is cooler than that higher up, the light rays

7 End
will curve downwards, producing a superior image. Superior mirages are
most common in polar regions, especially over large sheets of ice with a
CashPlants uniform low temperature.
HolisticTuition

Home
Internal Reflection
Critical angle is angle of incidence when light travels
from denser medium to less dense medium and angle of
refraction is 90o.

Less dense medium

< Back

Next >
C Denser medium

Normal
When light travels from denser to less dense medium and the critical angle
is exceeded, total internal reflection takes place.
Application of total internal reflection: optical fibres

8 End
A light ray enters fibre at an angle > critical angle
Total internal reflection takes place along whole length of the fibre.
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Home
Lens
There are 2 types of lenses: convex and concave lenses
Convex lens: the point where refracted rays meet is called focal
point
Concave lens: the light rays seem to be diverged from a single
point, the point is the focal point
< Back Focal length (f): distance from optical centre to focal point
Next > 1
Power of lens = , unit is dioptre (D)
f (in metre)

A real image can be formed on a screen.

A virtual image cannot be formed on a screen.

Optical instruments which use lenses:

Camera Photocopier
9 End Magnifying glass Slide projector
CashPlants Microscope Telescope
HolisticTuition

Home
Lens
Object distance Image distance (v) Characteristics of Uses
(u) image
u<f Same side as Virtual, upright, Magnifying glass
object enlarged
u=f At infinity Virtual, upright, Telescope
enlarged
f < u < 2f v > 2f Real, inverted, Slide projector
< Back enlarged

Next > u = 2f v = 2f Real, inverted, Photocopier

same size
u > 2f F < v < 2f Real, inverted, camera
diminished

1 1 1
Lens equation: + =
u v f
v
10 End Magnification of lens = u
CashPlants
HolisticTuition

Summary
Home

What you have learned:

< Back
1. Understanding Light
2. Reflection and Refraction
3. Using the Laws

11 End Thank You

CashPlants