Chapter 13

Light

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13.1 Reflection of Light
13.1.1 Light Properties
1. Light travels in a straight line.
2. Example 1: Ray box
a. Ray box is an apparatus used to produce a ray (narrow beam) of light.

3. Example 2: Laser light

13.1.2 Mirror and reflection

1. What happens when we stand in front of the mirror?

2. When you look in a mirror, rays of light from your face reflect off the shiny
surface and back to your eyes.

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 3. Light ray bounces off when it hits a reflecting surface. The following diagram is a
ray diagram.

1. The angles are measured between the rays and the normal

LAW OF REFLECTION:
The angle of incidence and the angle of reflection are equal (i = r).

2. The law of reflection also works for curved mirrors.

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13.1.3 The image in a plane mirror
1. Why does the image formed on the mirror appear to be behind the mirror?
2. To answer this question, we have to refer to the ray diagram to see how the
image is formed.

a. The above figure show how image is formed.

b. Humans always assume that the rays have travelled in straight lines from a
point behind the mirror, shown by the dashed line.
c. In reality, no light is coming behind the mirror. What we are seeing is a
virtual image.
3. When an object is reflected in a plane mirror, its image is:
a. The same size as the object
b. The same distance behind the mirror as the object is in front of it
c. Laterally inverted
d. Virtual

Definition:
1. Image – What we see when we view an object by means of reflected ray
2. Laterally inverted – an image in which left and right have been reversed
3. Real image – An image that can be formed on a screen
4. Virtual image – An image that cannot be formed on a screen

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13.1.4 Drawing a ray diagram.

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13.2 Refraction of Light
13.2.1 Explaining refraction of light.
1. Refraction occurs when a ray of light travels from one medium to another. For
example:
a. Bent straw in a liquid

b. Ripples seen on the bottom of the pool – caused by water bending the light

2. Refraction happens at the boundary between the two materials.

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 3. Ray diagram of refraction

4. Refraction of light in glass

a. 2 scenarios
1. The ray bends towards the normal when entering the glass.
2. The ray bends away from the normal when leaving the glass.
b. When a ray of light hit a boundary at 90’ it is not refracted.

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 5. Why is light refracted?
a. Light is refracted because it travels at different speeds in different materials.
b. Metaphor: Picture a truck’s wheels slipping off the road into the sand. The
truck turns to the side because it cannot move so quickly through the sand.

6. Why the swimming pool appears to be shallower than it is?

a. The light is refracted when it leaves the water.
b. It bends away from the normal.
c. The observer assumes that the light travelled in a straight line, and therefore
sees the lamp higher – shown by the dashed ray and lamp.

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13.2.2 Refractive Index
1. The refractive index of a material measures how much light is bent.
2. If the speed of light is halved when it enters a material, then the refractive index
is 2 and so on.

Definition:
1. Speed of light = 3.0 x 108
2. Refractive index = The ratio of speeds of a light wave in two different
media.

Formula for refractive index:

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Worked Example
A ray of light hits the surface of water at an angle of incidence of 30°. It is refracted at an
angle of 22°. Find the refractive index, n, of water.

Worked Example
The speed of light in air is 3 x 108 m/s. The refractive index of water is 1.25. Calculate
the speed of light in water.

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 13.3 Total Internal Reflection
13.3.1 Internal Reflection
1. Light is refracted when it travels from one medium to another.
2. However, sometimes not all light is refracted. Some could be reflected from the
surface.

3. By varying the incidence angle, we can control the refractive angle, and even
eliminating it when the incidence angle equals the critical angle.

Angle of incidence
Angle of incidence is increases. More light
small. Only faint is reflected inside the
reflected ray. block. Refracted ray
Refracted ray bends bends away further
away from normal. from normal.

Angle of incidence is
Refracted ray greater than the
emerges along and critical angle. All the
parallel to the surface light is reflected
of the block for a inside the block. No
particular angle of refracted ray emerges
incidence. This angle from the block.
is called the critical
angle.

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 4. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, the light is entirely
reflected inside the glass. This is known as total internal reflection.
Breaking down the term:
Total 100% of the light is reflected

Internal It happens inside the glass

Reflection The ray is entirely reflected

5. Critical angle for different materials.

Material Critical Angle
Glass 42
Water 49
Diamond 25

Notes:
For diamond, the critical angle is small. Therefore, light
that enter a diamond are very likely to be totally
internally reflected. The light bounces around inside
the diamond and emerging from one of the diamond’s
cut faces.

Definition:
1. Internal reflection: When a ray of light strikes the inner surface of a
material and some of it reflects inside it.
2. Critical angle: The minimum angle of incidence at which total internal
reflection occurs.
3. Total internal reflection: When a ray of light strikes the inner surface of a
material and 100% of the light reflects inside it.

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13.3.2 Critical angle and refractive index
1. Critical angle depends on the material through which a ray is travelling.
2. The greater the refractive index of the material, the smaller the critical angle, and
vice versa.
3. Formula for critical angle

Worked example:
Find the critical angle, c, for diamond. Assume that refractive index n = 2.40.

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13.3.3 Total Internal Reflection Application – Optical Fibers
1. Telecommunications
a. Optical fibers are very fine (0.25 – 0.5 mm in diameter).

a. Telephone messages and other electronic signals are passed along fine glass
fibers in the forms of flashing laser light.
b. Inside a fiber, light travels along by total internal reflections.
c. It bounces along inside the fiber because, each time it strikes the inside of the
fiber, its angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle. This means no
light is lost as it is reflected.
2. Medicine
a. An endoscope is used by doctors to see inside a patient’s body.
b. One bundle of fibers carries light down into the body, while another bundle
carries an image back up to the user.

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Exercise
1. The critical angle for a material is 38°. Calculate its refractive index.

2. Based on the diagram below, calculate the refractive index and critical angle of
the material.

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13.4 Lenses
1. Application of lenses
a. Spectacles
b. Cameras
c. Microscopes
d. Telescopes
2. Two types of lenses
a. Converging lenses (also known as convex lens)
b. Diverging lenses (also known as concave lens)

Ray diagrams for:

Converging
lens

Diverging lens

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13.4.1 Converging Lens
1. From the ray diagram:
a. After the parallel rays pass through the lens, they converge on a single point:
The principal focus (or focal point).
b. After they have passed through the principal focus, they spread out again.
c. An additional converging lens can be used to produce a beam of parallel rays.

2. The principal focus is the point where the rays are concentrated together, and
where a piece of paper needs to be placed if it is to be burned.
3. Important: The fatter the lens, the closer the principal focus is to the lens. Fatter
lens has shorter focal length. See diagram below.

4. Lenses work by refracting light.

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 5. Drawing the ray diagram for converging lens.

Worked Example:
Draw a ray diagram to find the image formed of a 3 cm tall object placed 12 cm from a
converging lens which has a focal length of 5cm.
Try to draw it yourself:

Exercise 1:
Drawing ray diagrams lets us predict what an image will look like. A lens can make
different images depending on its position. Draw the following ray diagrams.
• A lens with a focal length of 3 cm with the object 8cm from the lens.

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 • The same lens as above but with the object 5 cm from the lens.

Definition
1. Enlarged: Used to describe an image which is bigger than the object.
2. Diminished: Used to describe an image which is smaller than the object.
3. Inverted: Used to describe an image which is upside down compared to the object.
4. Upright: Used to describe an image which is the same way up as the object.
5. Principal axis: The line passing through the center of a lens perpendicular to
its surface.
6. Principal focus/Focal point: The point at which rays of light parallel to the
principal axis converge after passing through a converging lens.
7. Focal length: The distance from the center of the lens to its principal focus.
8. Converging lenses: A lens that causes rays of light parallel to the axis to
converge at the principal focus.
9. Diverging lenses: A lens that causes rays of light parallel to the axis to diverge
from the principal focus.

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13.4.2 Application of lenses

13.4.2.1 Magnifying glass

1. A magnifying glass is a converging lens.
2. User should hold it close to a small object to see a magnified image.
3. The object viewed by a magnifying glass should be closer to the lens than the
principal focus. Ray diagram for a magnifying glass is as followed:

Try to draw it yourself:

4. Observation:
a. Ray 1 and ray 2 do not cross over each other.
b. They diverge after they passed through the lens.
c. However, by extending the rays backwards, as shown by the dashed lines, we
can see that they both appear to be coming from a point behind the object.
Similar to reflection phenomena in plane mirror!
d. This is the position of the image.
5. The image produced by a magnifying glass is:
a. Upright
b. Enlarged
c. Further from the lens than the object
d. Virtual

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13.4.2.2 Using lenses to correct eyesight problems
1. Our eyes contain converging lenses which form an image on the retina at the
back of the eye.
2. The lenses in our eyes are flexible and muscles can change the shape and
strength of the lens. This allows us to focus on objects at different distances.

3. Some eyes are unable to change their strength enough to focus on either close or
distant objects. An extra lens, worn as spectacles or contact lenses, can work
with the eye lens to let it focus as needed.

Short sight
1. A person with short sight can see close up objects clearly, but cannot form a clear
image of distant objects.
2. The image is formed in front of the retina.

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 3. To correct this, a diverging lens is used to make the rays from the distant object
diverge.

Long sight
1. A long-sighted eye can focus on the distant objects but not close objects.

2. Two reasons:
a. The eyeball is too short
b. The lens cannot become strong enough so the rays from a close object cannot
be converged enough to form an image on the retina.
3. To correct this, a converging lens is used to make the rays from the distant object
to converge.

Exercise (coursebook 252).

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13.5 Dispersion of light
1. When white light passes through glass, it refracts as it enters and leaves the
glass, and can be split into a spectrum of colours.

2. White light is a mixture of all the different colours of the spectrum.

a. Red
b. Orange
c. Yellow
d. Green
e. Blue
f. Indigo
g. Violet
3. Dispersion occurs because each colour is refracted by a different amount. Red
light refracts the least, while violet light refracts the most.
4. Light of a single colour (monochromatic light) is not dispersed by a prism. It is
refracted so that it changes direction, but it is not split up into a spectrum.

Definition:
Spectrum: Waves, or colours, of light, separated out in order according to their
wavelengths
Dispersion: The separation of different wavelengths of light because they are
refracted through different angles.

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Natural phenomena - Rainbow
1. White light from the sun is split up into a spectrum of colours as it enters and
leaves droplets of water in the air.
2. It is reflected back to the viewer by total internal reflection.

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