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K
E
Y

What is light energy?

One type of energy that we can see
is light.

The Sun is the source of light for the Earth. Wherever

light is not present, everything is completely dark and we
cannot see. 2

Humans have the ability Where there is

to see because light no light, there is
activates the vision no vision.
1
centres in our eyes.

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 59
light energy

What is light A photon is a single

bundle of light energy.
made of? Photons are always
Light is made up of tiny moving. They are a type
bits of energy called of elementary particle.
photons.

Atoms make
up every living
and non-living
Sub-atomic particles are the smallest things in the universe. thing in the
universe and on
atom They are the the Earth.
building blocks that
make up atoms.

sub-atomic particles
4

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 60
LIGHT energy

How does light travel?

Photons all line up together and travel in patterns shaped like waves.
When photons
move through the
air or space in
these waves it is
called radiation.

We can’t see these patterns with our eyes

because the particles are too small, and
because they are moving too quickly. Light travels from the Sun to the Earth in
rays. This is an example of radiation.

5 6

Just like
waves in
the sea,
light waves
make curved
shapes as
they move
forwards.

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 61
light energy

Light waves have a top part (the crest) and a bottom part (the trough).
wavelength
crest

trough
Scientists measure light waves by working out the distance between the tops of each wave. This is called the wavelength. 7

Light waves with long distances between the crests have a long wavelength.
Waves with
long wavelength short distances
between
the crests
have a short
wavelength.

short wavelength
8 9

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 62
LIGHT energy

What is the spectrum of light?

The spectrum of light is the name we give to light that humans can see.
Red has the longest
wavelength and violet
has the shortest.
Green has a medium
wavelength.

Most light that we see is white light, which

contains all of the different wavelengths.
10 11

On a rainy day, water droplets In the nonsense name,

split the light into all the Roy G. Biv, each letter is
visible colours of the spectrum the beginning letter of a
and we see a rainbow. colour of the rainbow.

12

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 63
LIGHT energy

It would take 100 000 light years to

travel the width of our own galaxy, the
Milky Way!

What is a light year?

Light energy travels at about
300 000 kilometres (km) per second.
This is the speed of light.

Light travels a distance of about 10 trillion kilometres in

one year. That distance is called one light year.
The light year is the ruler that astronomers use to
measure things in the universe. 13 14 15

Click to
watch
Light can travel around the Earth almost four times the
every second! movie

Topic Movie
test quiz

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 64
Movie

Click the
movie
frame to
watch.

Then
click to
try the
movie
quiz.
STUDENT WORK SHEET 4.1 LIGHT ENERGY

1 List three things that can light up. 4 Look at these words about light. Write them
in the space provided below their meanings.
Space them out to show where they break
into syllables.
particles     atoms    photon
eyes    vision    streams

created when particles all line up together
2 What word means the opposite of light?

d _ _ _n_ss
a single bundle of light energy
3 Look at the diagram. Which are smaller: atoms or sub-atomic
particles?
the sense of sight
one atom

many sub-atomic particles   organs that enable us to see

the building blocks that make up atoms

these make up all living and non-living things

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 65
STUDENT WORK SHEET 4.2 LIGHT ENERGY

5 Complete this sentence by filling in the missing letters. 8 Label these light waves correctly as short wavelength and long

L_ _ _t moving in _ _ys is called ra_ia_i o n. wavelength.

6 Complete this sentence by filling in the missing letters.

Rays move from the S_ _ to the E_ _ _ _ through

sp_ _ _.

7 Label the diagram using the words from the word bank below.
crest     trough     wavelength

9 Write these words into the spaces below. The lines break them
into syllables.
wavelength     distance     medium

Example: p a r / t i c / l e

_ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ Hint

The syllable rule

___ / _____ Every syllable
needs to have a
_ _ _ / _ / _ _ vowel.

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 66
STUDENT WORK SHEET 4.3 LIGHT ENERGY

10 Choose the correct words to write in each of these spaces. 12 Write each colour of the rainbow next to the letters.
detect     wavelength     humans     particular     
different     contains R

The word O
means people. Y
The word G
means not the same.
B
The word
I
means the distance between two crests of a wave.
V
The word
means specific.

The word
means has in it.

The word
means identify.

11 Do these kinds of light have short, medium or long wavelengths?

Write short, medium or long for each.

red light

green light

blue light

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 67
STUDENT WORK SHEET 4.4 LIGHT ENERGY

13 Select the largest distance of these three: 15 Look at the sets of words below. Select the box next to the word
that is spelled correctly. Check your answers and re-write the
two million light years words correctly in the spaces provided.

four hundred light years astronomers astromoners atronomers

one light year

14 Fill in the blanks using the word bank to complete the sentences. seond seccond second
distance     Astronomers     light

travell travvel travel

kilemeters kilometres killometres

distance disstance distence

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is about 100 000

years wide.

The of ten trillion kilometres is called one

light year.

use the light year to measure things

in the universe.

© Ally Chumley and Blake Education 2012 Interactive Instant Lessons – Energy 68