UNIT 1

MODULE 6 – COLORS OF LIGHT

Overview

The Science of Light has gone all the way from a mere transfer of energy to the creation of
colors for entertainment and other purposes. Most of our gadgets are light emitting for efficiency when
used at night. In the field of medicine light is used to cut through the skin for surgery as in laparoscopy.
The health sciences are also using light for other medical purposes. But the most important purpose is
for humans and other animals to see the beautiful world through light. So, are you ready to explore the
characteristics and properties of light?

In this module, you will learn some properties and characteristics of light. Among the
characteristics and properties of light, we will focus on refraction and specifically, dispersion of light. We
will try to find through simple activities how light disperse to form the colors of light. We will also try to
find the hierarchy of colors of light in terms of frequency, wavelength, and energy. The different
activities provided in this module will make us realize the beauty of everything with light.

How are refraction and dispersion demonstrated in light?

Among the different colors of light, which is bent the most and the
least?
Why do we see spectacular
events in the sky like rainbows, red
sunset and blue sky?

Refraction of Light

Did you know that the boy made the stunt in a 6-ft deep swimming pool? But as it appears in Figure 1
the water is just shallow and the stunt would not be dangerous at all. This optical illusion is known as
apparent depth. Apparent depth is the illusion that objects under the water appear to be nearer the
surface than they really are. This is visible when an observer is standing beside the swimming pool
looking at an object under water. This phenomenon is a consequence of the bending of light when light
traverses the air-water boundary.

Refracting Light
Light exhibits the characteristics and properties of a wave. It is classified as an electromagnetic
wave located between the spectrum of infrared and ultraviolet. As an electromagnetic wave it
does not need a medium in order to propagate. It moves in its maximum speed in vacuum. But
this speed decreases as it moves along different media. This characteristic of light consequently
shows bending when it crosses the boundary between two media. Apparent distortion of an
object seen at the boundary between media is observed.
Figure 3. Show me the coin… Figure 4. Broken pencil
Figures 3 and 4 are the basic examples of refraction of light.

Refraction is the bending of light when it travels from one medium to another of different
optical densities. The pencil as shown in Figure 4 is not really broken. If we remove the water from the
glass and look at the pencil, the pencil would look normally straight. Now try pouring water onto the
glass and, voila - a broken pencil. This happens because of the change in speed and orientation of the
light with respect to the normal as it traverses a new medium of a different density.

Light travels so fast. From your lesson last year, it is approximated to travel at a speed of 3 x 108 m/s in a
vacuum. This speed decreases when light travels in a dense medium. This means that the speed of light
is dependent on the properties of the medium. In the case of light, it is dependent on the optical density
of the medium. The optical density of the medium is different from its physical density. Physical density
is described as the mass per unit volume of the medium. On the other hand, the sluggishness of the
atoms of a medium to maintain the absorbed energy before reemitting it is called optical density. When
light crosses the boundary of two media of different optical density, a change in speed takes place. This
change in speed is manifested as bending of the light ray.

Figure 5. Refraction of light

In Figure 6, light travels from air to water. We observe that the incident angle (<i) is greater
than the angle of refraction (<r). We can see that the light ray refracts or bends towards the normal.
Thus, light bends towards the normal when traveling from a less dense medium to a higher density
medium.

The index of refraction of a material is a quantity that compares the speed of light in that
material to its speed in a vacuum. Since the speed of light in vacuum is the highest attainable speed in
the universe, the index of refraction is always greater than 1. The n values of other media are shown in
Table 1.

Table 1. Index of Refraction of other materials

Materials Index of Refraction

Diamond 2.147
Zircon 1.923
Light flint glass 1.580
Crown glass 1.520
Ethyl alcohol 1.510
Water 1.360
Ice air 1.310
Vacuum 1.000

Figure 6. Refraction of Light in Water

A known indicator of the optical density of a material is the index of refraction of the material.
Index of refraction represented by the symbol n is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum and its speed
in another medium. In symbols;
 Were you able to get good sets of data from the activity? Did you enjoy watching how the
rainbow colors appear when white light strikes the prism or the mirror in the bowl of water? We
highlight here the arrangement of colors of light as ROYGBIV when dispersion happens. Again,
dispersion is a special kind of refraction which provided us colors of light. This phenomenon is observed
when white light passes through a triangular prism. When white light enters a prism, separation into
different colors is observed. Remember the concept of refractive indices in the previous module and in
the first part of the lesson? The refractive indices of the different colors of light indicate that light of
different colors travels at different speeds in the prism which accounts for the different degrees of
bending. Thus, blue light with greater refractive index refracts more and appears at the bottom of the
red light. Activity 3, however, will give you a better idea why this is so.

Did you have a good set of results? Were you able to enjoy the activity on the energy of colors of light?
Temperature as we have defined it in the previous module is the average kinetic energy of the
molecules of an object. The higher the registered temperature, the greater is the average kinetic energy.
When the violet colored wrapper is hit by sunlight or a light source, only the violet component of white
light passes through the plastic. Since the thermometer wrapped in violet plastic registered the highest
temperature, violet light then greatly increases the average kinetic energy of the air surrounding the
thermometer. On the other hand, the thermometer with the red plastic cover only allows red light to
pass through it. This means that since the thermometer covered with the red plastic sheet registered
the lowest temperature, red light only brings about a minimal increase in the average kinetic energy of
the air surrounding the thermometer. Basically, from Activity 3, we have identified that blue has the
highest energy and red light has the least. On which other characteristics of color of light does the
energy of the colors of light depend on?

Activity 4 revisits the activity you have already done in Grade 7. The focus of the activity in Grade 7
however, was to identify the corresponding frequency and wavelength of each color of light and the
computation of the speed of each. We noted last time that the speed of the wave is the product of the
frequency of the wave and the corresponding wavelength. This time we will focus on how energy relates
to the frequency of the colors of light.

Now you have an idea why rainbows appear the way they do. Rainbows are created just like the
colors of light appeared in Activity 1. A prism is needed to break the white light into the different colors
of light. With the different refractive indices of the colors of light, bending is also different for each of
the colors of light. From Activity 2 you have just found that Blue light is bent most. Thus, a rainbow
starts with the RED light being at the topmost and ends with the VIOLET light being on the bottom of the
bow? However, you saw the Blue at the bottom since Violet light is not very visible. But which acts as a
prism in the sky for real large rainbows to form? Do you still believe that there is really a pot of gold at
the end of the bow? There are many other beliefs about what we usually observe in the sky. Are these
really true? Do they have scientific bases? Can you explain these phenomena? Let’s try Activity 5.

Summary
 The dual nature of light brings about several observable phenomena in the sky. Light as a wave exhibits
properties just like any other waves. When light moves from one medium to another of a different
density, the speed changes, bringing about changes in the direction of the refracted ray with respect to
the normal line. This is known as refraction. Refraction of light, however, may result in a display of colors
of light when it passes through materials that can have varied refractive indices for every wavelength of
color that passes through them. A glass prism, for example, has varied refractive indices per wavelength
of color resulting in different bending angles of the refracted colors of light with respect to the normal
line. This phenomenon is better known as dispersion.

With the concept of dispersion, colors of light are hierarchically arranged as ROYGBIV according to
frequency and energy of the colors of light. Red happens to have the lowest frequency and the least
energy. Energy and frequency increases as one moves from red light towards violet light. This display of
colors of lights by dispersion of white light is one of the consequences of refraction of light aside from
the apparent depth mentioned above. Other consequences are spectacular phenomenon of blue skies
and red sunsets.

What other properties of light can be observed? Excited to know? These will be introduced to you at
the next level! In the meantime, relax and enjoy the next module.