Xaria Ward

Name: ____________________
Title/Topic: Light Date: _____________________
Astronomy
Subject: ___________________
8
Period: ____________________
ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
• How do we see objects?
• How does light move?
• How fast is the speed of light?
Study Questions Student Notes

• Light - is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is _______

visible to the
1. What is light?
human eye
(380–750 nm)
• Simply stated, light is nature's way of transferring _______
energy through space
2. How do we • reflects off of objects, and enters into our eyes, where our brains interpret
Light ______
actually see
stuff? the images.
• lens which focuses the light on
As light enters our eyes it passes through the ____,
3. The eye as a
modern marvel the back of our retina. This image is inverted compared to reality. The retina
then transforms this into an electrical impulse which is sent down our optic
nerve to our brains, where our brain ‘____’
flips the image back to ‘right-side up.’

• Our eye is a magnificent piece of _______

natural engineering, it adapts to incredible
situations quickly.
• fatten
We have various ligaments that “_____” flaten
or “______” our lens to adapt when
we focus on objects near or far from us
• luminosities
Pupils dilate or contract to adapt to different quantities/____________ of light,
to protect our eyes, and vision.
• People with glasses have eyes that do not function ‘_______’
perfectly in auto adjusting

to the various demands of nature, so artificial enhancements (glasses or

contacts) help them to see better.

• In the end, despite the marvels of the human eye, without light, it is utterly
useless.
• Just like the kids in the dark room, without light, your eyes will be able to
provide your brain with signals that can be interpreted.
• light
In short, no ______, sight
no ______!
4. Light is tricky • Light behaves as both a _________
particle of light (photon) and as a _______.
wave This
makes light a remarkable substance.
• In many instances, it is convenient to represent light as a "________"
particle
5. Light as a
photon phenomenon, thinking of light as discrete "packets" of energy that we
call photons.
• Even though it is not strictly correct, it is hard not to think of a beam of light as
a collection of little "_______________"
light bullets all strung together in a row.
• This is somewhat more difficult for most people to understand, but if we think
6. Light as a wave
about a sound wave, it is easier. When you play a high note and a low note on
the piano, they both produce sound, but the main thing that is different
between the two notes is the _________
frequency of the vibrating string producing the
sound waves--the faster the vibration the higher the pitch of the note.

• The greater the frequency of light, the more ________

energy contained in the wave,
and the more ______
blue the light will be.

• This allows light to function in ways that we see every day. Filling rooms
quickly, ________
corner to ______.
corner Bending around objects to lighten darkened
areas.
7. De Broglie • In 1932 Louis de Broglie proposed that not only light, but matter had wave-like
Wave-Particle
Theory characteristics. Since he proposed his idea, It has been shown that __________
hydrogen

also has wave characteristics.

• Implications – If possible and controllable, Humans might be able to
______through
phase walls and possibly _______
teleport anywhere in the world almost

instantaneously, if we can harness the power.

• We all know that light has a speed, but it moves so _______,
fast how did we figure
8. Light Speed
out it has a speed?
A Common Thought….
• It is “________”
infinite in speed. Meaning that essentially has a speed of infinity.
• This was the prevailing opinion in science until 1638.
9. Empedocles to • Empedocles was a 5th century BC _________,
philosopher and he was the first to question
Aristotle
the concept that “the speed of light is infinite” in his ________.
writings
 • A century later, Aristotle argues that Empedocles was wrong, and a 2,000 year
argument was born.
• Dutch Scientist who felt that “any good experiment comes with an __________,
explosion
10. Isaac
Beeckman – or two”
1629
• mirrors at various distances from the explosion and asked
Beeckman placed ________
observers whether they could see any difference in when the flash of light
reflected from each mirror reached their eyes.
• inconclusive
Results: __________
• first scientist to attempt to measure the speed
Galileo is often credited as the _____
of light
11. Galileo - 1638
• small a scale to calculate
His experimental design was simple, but was on too ______
the speed of light accurately.
• Galileo and his assistant each took a shuttered lantern, and positioned
mile apart. As soon as the assistant saw Galileo
themselves on hilltops one _____
flashing his lantern, he would reply by opening the shutter to his own lantern.
Galileo would then mark down how long it took before he saw the light from
time he
the other lantern. Dividing the return trip of two miles with the _____,
would obtain the speed of light in just the same way of measuring the speed of
any moving daily object.
_____
• His conclusion: "If not instantaneous, it is extraordinarily rapid".
• 10 times the speed of sound
Galileo reasoned it was at least ___

• It was the Danish astronomer, Olaus Roemer, who, in 1676, first successfully
measured the speed of light. His method was based on observations of the
________
eclipses of the moons of Jupiter.
• Roemer noted that the observed time interval between successive eclipses of a
given moon was about seven minutes greater when the observations were
12. Olaus Roemer
– 1679 carried out when the earth in its orbit was moving away from Jupiter than
when it was moving toward Jupiter.
• For Roemer, the only way to account for that time difference, was the speed at
which light travels.
• Roemer calculated a speed of light at 140,000 miles/second
 • As time went on, we improved on our ability to measure the speed of light, and
have calculated the final number 299,792.458 kilometers/second
• Roemer’s calculation: 225,308.16 kilometers/second

c = 3 x 108 m/s
c is the variable in equations that denotes “speed of light”

13. Light Years What is a light year?

The _______
distance light travels in one year.
1 ly = 9.46 x 1015 m
(5.88 x 1012 miles)
14. How long does
it take for light If our sun went supernova,
to reach us? would we know the moment it happened?

How long does light take to reach us from the sun

c = 3.0 x 108 m/s d = 149.60 × 109 m
(Speed of Light) (Distance of the Earth to the Sun)

___
8 minutes and ____
20 seconds (on average)
Summary:
How has your understanding of light changed throughout the day today?
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