OCEAN PUBLICATION 79

11. Explain why the planets do not twinkle.

For answer, refer additional
question answer, question number 4.
12. Why does the Sun appear reddish early in the morning?
For answer, refer section 11.6,
question number 24.
13. Why does the sky appear dark instead of blue to an astronaut?
The atmosphere becomes thinner as
one moves above the earth.
Astronauts travelinthe space which is at very high alttudes. At such altitudes the sun cannot scatter
any sunlght because of extremely thin atmosphere. As a result, the sky appears dark and not biue
to the astronauts.

QUESTION-ANSWERS
11.1 The Human Eye
1AExplain the functions
of the main parts of a human
eye along with a diagram.
T h e human eye is one of the most valuable and sensitive sense organs. It enables us to see the
wonderful world and its colours.
Structure and working of human eyes:
T h e human eye is the best natural optical instrument whose construction and working can be
compared with a camera.
Working of eyes:
1. The light rays coming from the object enter the eye through cornea. The cornea forms a
transparent bulge in front of the eye-balls. The eye-ball is almost spherical shaped and has a
diameter of about 2.3 cm.
2. Just behind the cornea, there lies a dark muscular diaphragm called iris which controls the
amount of light that enters the eye.
3. There is a hole in the iris which is the aperture of the eye i.e. the pupil of eye.
T h e size of this aperture or pupil is controlled by iris.
4. After passing through the pupil, the light rays are incident on the eye-lens.
> The eye lens is a convex lens made of transparent jelly like material.
5. Ciliary muscles hold the eye lens.

Ciliary muscles change the thickness of

the eye lens while focusing. In other 5. Ciliary
words, the focal length of eye lens can 1. Cornea muscles
be changed by changing its shape with
2. Iris 4. Crystalline
the help of ciliary muscles. This helps in
eye lens
proper viewing of the objects. 3. Pupil
(opening) 6. Retina
5. The screen on which the image is
Ciliary
formed in the eye is called retina. muscles
The retina is a delicate membrane having Aqueous humour
a large number of light sensitive cells.
When light rays falls on retina, its light
sensitive cells generate electrical Vitreous humour
7. Optic nerves
signals.
7. The retina sends these signals to the Figure 11.2 : The structure of human eye
brain through optic nerve.
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80 11. THE HUMAN EYE AND THE COLOURFULforms an inverted
lens

7he brain interprets the image of the object. The eye

rea image
objects on the retina.
us to see the objects.
This interpretation allows
Accommodation
I1.11Power of
accommodation power of
an eye.
Explain
Accommodation power of an eye:
T h e ability of the eye lens
to adjust its TOcal length as per requirement so that
that objects ca
accommodation power of an eye.
seen clearly is called
With the help of ciliary muscles, an eye can tocus the images of the distant objects as
the focal length of its lens.
nearby objects on its retina by changing
the
When the eyes are looking at a distant object, the ciliary muscles are relaxed, the len
and focal length is more. This enables eye to see the distant object clearly. is
Similarly when the ciliary muscles contract, the curvature of the eye lens increase
length decreases. This enables to see nearby objects clearly.

3. Explain Near point of an eye and far point of an eye.

() Near point of an eye:
T h e minimum distance at which the objects can be seen clearly without contracting the eVe
i.e. without any strain is called the least distance of the distinct vision or near point of an
eve
For a young adult having normal vision, the near point of the eye is 25 cm.
(ii) Far point of an eye
T h e farthest distance up to which the eye can see objects clearly is called far
point of an eye
>The farthest point of a person with normal vision lies at an infinite distance. This is so
the maximum distance an individual can see cannot be measured.
becaus
Thus, a person with normal vision objects clearly from 25 to infinite
can see cm
distance.
Ciliary muscles relaxed Ciliary muscles contracte
(Lens becomes thin) (Lens becomes thick)

Parallel rays
= infinity rom object
- Object
Image Fu= 25 cm
Image
Distant vision Near vision
Figure 11.3 Accommodation
power of
eye (For information only)
an

4.How do ciliary muscles help to see nearby and far objects?

The lens of our eyes is made up of a fibrous jelly-ike material. Because the lens is made
flexible material its shape or say curvature can be with sua
changed while seeing the object. The Cla
muscles have the ability to change the curvature and hence
the focal length of the eyes.
When the ciliary muscles are in relaxed position, the lens
remains thin. So, the focal length of
lens increases and we can see far-off objects
clearly
When we look at objects closer to us (for example, while
increases the curvature of the lens
reading), the ciliary muscles contract.
eye and the lens become
and thicker. The focal length decrea
so we are able to see nearby objects clearly.
5. What is cataract?
Sometimes, in old aged people, the crystalline lens of the eyes becomes milky and clouay
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A S a resut, the vision becomes hazy or even opaque due to the formation of a membrane over the

lens. This condition is called cataract.

Cataract causes partial or complete loss of vision.
The vision can be restored through cataract surgery.
l1.2 Defects of Vision and their Correction
6. How does defect of vision occur? Name the different types of defects of vision.
the
he gnt rays coming from
retina of the
an object passes through the eye lens and forms an image on
eye.
To see objects clearly, image should be formed retina.
exactly on
in the
ror tnis, tne ciliary muscles in the eye change the thickness of the eye lens which results
change of focal length
of the eye.
When thickness of this lens does not change with respect to the object distance, the object
cannot be seen properly. This is known as defect of vision.
The vision becomes blurred due to such refractive defects.
Types of defect of vision:
(1) Near sightedness or Myopia (2) Far sightedness or Hypermetropia (3) Prestbyopia
is the cause of short (near) defect
7What sightedness in eye ? How can short
Ke removed ? OR Write a short note on near sightedness or myopia.
sightedness

T o see distant objects, the eye lens should become thin.

When the lens is unable to do so, the light rays converge more than they should. So, the image
gets formed before the retina rather than on it. Hence, distant objects cannot be seen clearly.
This defect is known as near sightedness or myopia. Myopia arises due to () Excessive
curvature of the lens or (i) Elongation of the eye ball.
T o correct this defect, concave lens of appropriate focal length is used.
Image formed before retina due
to excessive convergence of
light rays Concave, lens
Image
Light formed
rays exactly
Retina /lon retina
Retina

Figure 11.4 (b) Near sightedness cured

Figure 11.4: (a) Near sightedness
by putting a concave lens

8. Writea short note sightedness (hypermetropia).

on far
1If eye lens does not become thick as per the requirement, then the rays coming from nearby
less converged and hence are focused behind the retina.
objects gets
Due to this, the image is formed behind the retina and not exactly on the retina. Hence, nearby
objects cannot be seen clearly.
T h e near point for person suffering from such defects is more than the normal near point of 25 cm.
So, he has to keep a reading material at a distance much beyond 25 cm for reading comfortably.
This type of defect is known as far sightedness or hypermetropia.
This defect occurs due to less convergence of the light rays.
T o correct this defect, convex lens of appropriate focal length is used.
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EYE AND
THE
82 THE HUMAN
11.
Image formod
Convex lens
bohind retina
d u e to less forred
Light rays
Retina
convergence
of light rays
Retina- on ree
Figure 11.5:(a) Farsightednoss
Fiqure 11.5: (b tedness cured
ir sightedness c.
putting a convex lens

9.
ftpra short note on aging-eye (presbyopla).
Ppésbyopla: age related eye condition which
resbyopla which literally means 'aging eye', is an

difficult to see objects that are too close.

of an eye usualy decreases.
a person grows older, the power of accommodation
find it difficult to see nearby objects
e hear point of aged people recedes and they
without spectacles. Such a defect is called presbyopla.
loss of elasticity of eye lens.
Tnis defect arises due to weakened ciliary muscles and
Eye with presbyopia
Functioning of a normal eye
(A) The cornea is the front
layer of the eye. It lets light (D) The image (A) The cornea still lets light (D) The image is trei.
pass into the eye. pass into the eye. behind the retina.
is focused on
the retina.

Object
+
(B) The lens changes (B) The lens hardens and
its shape to focus the cannot change its shape
image clearly. easily. So, close objects (C) The muscles cannot chang
(C) The ciliary muscles attached to the are no longer focused
shape of the lens easily once th
lens contract or relax to change its shape. clearly on the retina. lens gets hard.

Figure 11.6: Presbyopia (Forinformation only)

At times, people also ind it difficult to see even distant objects without spectacles i.e. they sufer
from both myopia as well as hypermetropia. Vision of such people can be cured using spectacles
of bifocal lens.
Concave lens for
T h e upper part of bifocal lens is made up of concave
distant vision
lens and its lower part is made up of convex lens.
Convex lens for
near vision

Figure 11.7: Bifocal lens

10. Enlist the defects of vision in human eyes and their remedies. (For information only)
Defects of vision Remedies
1. Near sightedness (Myopia) Using concave lens of appropriate focal length can cure
2. Far sightedness (Hypermetropia) Using convex lens of appropriate focal length can curel
3. Presbyopia Using spectacles of bifocal lens i.e. convex and concae
together can cure it.
 OCEAN PUBLICATION 85

.3 Refraction of Light Through a

Prism
11. What is a prism? Draw its diagram.
Prism: Refracting edges
A prism is
a portion of a
transparent
medium bounded by two plane faces Refracting
inclined to each other at a certain faces
angle.
As shown in the figure, the
prism has
two triangular bases and three
Angle of
rectangular lateral surfaces (or
faces). These surfaces are inclined prism
to each other.
The angle between the two lateral
faces is called the Base of prism
angle of prism.
Figure 11.8:A triangular glass prism
(For information only)
12. Drawa ray diagram to show the path of a light ray that enters the glass prism obliquely. Lade
on it the angle of incidence and
angle of deviation.
The figure here shows the
principle section ABC of a
.H
glass prism.
Ray Pa is an incident ray on
face AB. N M
On entering the denser
medium (glass) from rarer
medium (air), the ray Pa
N M
bends towards the normal
along the path QR. Thia means
ray PQ got refracted.
Ray QR again undergoes
refraction when it hits face AC. Figure 11.9 Refraction of light through a glass prism
The ray now travels from denser
medium to rarer medium (air). Hence, it bends away from the normal. It emerges out as ray RS.
Angle 'D' between the incident ray PQ and the emergent ray is called the angle of deviation i.e. the
angle at which the incident ray deviates.
Angle 'e' made by the emergent ray with the normal to the refracting face AC is called the angle
of emergence.
An important result is
i+e A + D
i.e. Angle of incidence +Angle of emergence = Angle of prism + Angle of deviation

11.4 Dispersion of White Light bya Glass Prism

13, What is dispersion of light? Which are the colours of the spectrum obtained from the
dispersion through a glass prism?
 WORLD
82 THE
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HUMAN EYE AND

11. THE
Dispersion of light: on
into its constituent colours
Splitting of white light seven
a glass prism
passing through a transparent medium like
is called
dispersion of light.
When white light is incident on a prism, the prisin White light
decomposes the white and hence a band of
light
seven Glass prism
colours is obtained on the screen. Figure 11.10: Disperson ofwh
The band of these colours is known as spectrum. through glass prísm
On the screen, we get a band of seven colours in the

following order from bottom to top:

14.
O, indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red (VIBGYOR)
What is the reason behind formation of spectrum and refraction of light into seven colou
ne constituent colours of a white light have same velocity in
vacuum. However, whenn
light passes through a transparent medium like glass, water, glycerin, etc., velocity of
Constituent colour changes and due to this, deviation of the different constituent colours oc
different angles. ur
7Each colour has a unique refractive index. Hence, the seven colours of the spectrum get ret
in different proportions. efrar:.
Example:
The velocity of violet
light is least and so it bends the most.
The
velocity of red light is highest and so it bends the least.
Hence, in a spectrum of prism, red colour is at the top while violet colour is at the bottom of the spectrum
15 Explain the dispersion of white light by a glass prism using necessary figure. OR
how one can recombine incident Expla
white light with the
help of two P2 Scre:
prisms?
> Take two identical
prisms P1 and
R
W h i t e
l i g h

P2 having same angles. N

Arrange these prisms as
shown White
in the figure
light
Incident a beam of white light on P1 A
prism P1. Dispersion of light Recombination
The light coming out of the prism of light
P1 will consist of seven colours. Figure 11.11: Recombination of spectrum of white
igt
Arrange prism P2 in such a way that the band of seven colours of
finally gives white beam of light on a screen. prism P1 falls properly on P2 an
From this experiment, Newton established
colours. that a white light is composed of seven constiue
This way we can understand the structure
of white light through the phenomenon
Explain formation of a rainbow with a neat
of dispersion of Ig
diagram.
JRainbow:
A
rainbow is a natural spectrum visible in
the sky after rain
>Rainbow is fomed when the water shower.
droplets present in the atmosphere
Note that a rainbow is disperse the sunlight falling on hem
always formed in the direction
opposite to that of the sun.
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Formation

When sunlight fals on the atmospheric (2) Refraction (3) Dispersion

water drops, they first disperse the
and then reflect it (4) Internal
incident light internally Sun reflection of
(not necessarily total internal reflection). (1)
Sunlight light
Finally the light gets refracted again
while it is
coming out of rain drops. -Raindrop
We see diferent colours in a rainbow
Red (5) Refraction
because light enters into our eye through
dispersion and internal reflection. Violet

I n a rainbow, water droplets act as small

prisms
(6) Rainbow
The colour at the bottom of the rainbow is
violet while the top most colour is red. Such Figure 11.12: Formation of rainbow
a rainbow is called a primary rainbow.
SometimeS you may see two rainbows in the sky in which the order of colours in upper rainbow
is reverse of the primary rainbow. Such a rainbow is called secondary rainbow.

17,praw the structure of rainbow formation.

For answer, refer question no. 16.

1.5 Atmospheric Refraction

18. What is atmospheric refraction? Which phenomena results from it?

Atmospheric refraction
>Atmosphere consists of layers of different densities spread across it. This means the density of
atmosphere is not same everywhere.
>The layer at lower altitude from the earth has more density than that at the higher altitude.
Due to this difference, the refractive index of atmosphere continuously decreases as one moves
from lower to higher altitudes.
Moreover, the physical conditions of the refracting medium i.e. the atmospheric air keeps on
changing. As a result, we feel that the position of an object in the atmosphere is changing.
This phenomenon is called atmospheric refraction orthe refraction of light by earth's atmosphere.
>Phenomena such as twinkling of stars, early sunrise and delayed sunset occur due to this effect.
19. rite a note on twinkling of stars. OR Stars seem higher than they actually are. Explain. OR
Eypfain twinkling of stars in detail. Virtual position of star
Density of atmosphere is not uniform everywhere. (Appears higher)
There are different layers of atmosphere
with different refractive indices. Actual
position of Higher attitude
Atmospheric layer at lower altitude is colder
and denser compared to layer at higher star (Less dense air)
altitude.
Refractive
When the light travels from star at rarer
index
medium towards earth at denser medium, it
increasing
bends towards normal.
Lowerl attitude
hus, due to refraction towards normal, the
(More dense air)
position of star appears higher from its
actual position. Observer
Figure 11.13 Twinkle of a star
 WORLD
cOLOURFUL
AND THE
86 THE HUMAN EYE
11.
Reason for twinkling of stars:
earth's atmosphere
t
Is not stationary.
station- Ha
medium .e. the
condition of refracting
I h e physical to be changing
continuouSIy.
the position of star seems
from the
of the rays coming fron
continuouschange in the path of stars. stars
>This results in the leads to twinkling
Continuous change in the intensity
of light. This
leaves the space
he earth's atmosr
and enters the
or say bent as it
Light from a star is refracted
it is dense.
Sph
whereas near the earth's surface
is rare
Alr at higher altitude air bends the light more.
A S a result, when light from the star comes
down, the dense
poSition than it aet
to be at a higher
D u e to this, refraction of star's light, the star appears ctual
sunset when actuany
t is not
so?
why do we experience early sunrise and delayed OR
Give reason. Apparent position
gayay is longer by four minutes. of the sun
Actual sunrise means actual appearance of

the sun at the horizon.

When the sun is slightly below the horizon, Observer
the sun rays pass from less dense air to
Horizon
more dense air in the atmosphere and get
refracted downwards.
Due to this atmospheric refraction, the sun Earth
appears to be raised above the horizon
when actually it is still slightly below the ***
horizon. Thus, we can see sunrise two
minutes before it actually comes to horizon.
Atmosphere
In the same way, when sun is setting i.e. Figure 11.14: Effect of atmospheric
when it moves below the horizon, it is seen refraction at sunrise
to us for two minutes.

I n total, 2 minutes early sunrise and 2 minutes delayed sunset make our day longer by four minutes
Thus, we experience early sunrise and delayed sunset when actually it is not so.

11.6 Scatering of Light|

21. What is scattering of light? On what factors does it depend?
Scaftering of light:
The deflection of light by minute particles and molecules in all the directions is
scattering of light.
known =
The colour of scattered light depends upon the size of
scattering particles.
» For example, minute particles scatter light of small
wavelength such as blue colour.
Whereas bigger particles scatter light of larger wavelength such as red
colour.
If the size of scattering particles is much bigger, the scattered light
appears white.
22 Describe Tyndall effect.
Tyndall effect: Beam of light Torch
The earth's atmosphere is a visible in the
heterogeneous mixture of smoke colloidal
particles, tiny
water droplets and air
particles. solution Colloidal

solution
->When light falls on such
colloidal particles,
a path of
light beam becomes visible. Figure 11.15 Tyndall effect
(For information only)
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This phenomenon is known as Tyndall effect.
T h e light rays reach us after getting defllected in all directions from these particles.
Commercially, Tyndall effect helps in determining the density of aerosol and other colloidal
particles that are emitted.
Examples:
»When a tine beam of sun light enters a room filled with smoke through a small hole, a path of
light beam can be seen due to Tyndall effect.
When sunignt enters a canopy of dense forests, Tyndall effect can be seen due to scattering o
light through tiny water droplets of the mist.
Sometimes smoke emitted by the combustion of engine oil appears blue in colour.
23. Whiy does clean sky appear blue in colour ?
The sunlight is made up of seven colours
When sunight passes through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelength lights such as red,
orange, yellow, etc. present in it do not get scattered much by the molecules of the air and other
fine particles and hence pass
through straight.
The shorter wavelength blue light is however scattered all around the sky by air molecules in the
atmosphere.
The wavelength of red light is about 1.8 times more than that of blue colour.
Thus, when sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the fine particles in the air scafter blue
colour more strongly than red.
A s a result, the sky appears blue.
24. Why does sun appear reddish at sunrise and sunset?
White light coming from the
Sun nearly
sun has to travel a large
Overhead
distance in the atmosphere Blue light scattered away
before reaching to the sun appears reddish Less blue
observer.
Scattered
During sunrise or sunset,
Sun near
most of the blue colour
horizon
present in sunlight has been Observer
scattered out and it is away
from our sight.
As a result, only red light Figure 11.16: Reddening of the sun atsunrise and sunset
remains present in the beam
of sunlight and so only red colour reaches our eye.
A s a result, sun appears reddish at sunrise and sunset.

ADDITIONAL QUESTION-ANSWERSS
Why do some people use spectacles with bifocal lenses?
>Some people suffer from near-sightedness (myopia) as well far-sightedness (hypermetropia).
Myopia can be cured with concave lens whereas hypermetropia with convex lens. Spectacles with
bifocal lens have two lenses namely concave and convex to overcome this problem.
Hence, people suffering from both myopia as well as hypermetropia wear bifocal lens
2.
HOTS]In the figure, a narrow beam of white light is shown to pass through a triangular glass
prism. After passing through the prism it produces a spectrum XY on a screen.