2. Introduction
ď¨ Light is a form of energy and also a form of
electromagnetic radiation.
ď¨ Luminous objects are objects that radiates.
ď¨ Most luminous objects release light together with a large
amount of heat.
ď¨ Non-luminous objects can only be seen if they are
reflecting light from a luminous source.
Luminous object:
Stars
Non-Luminous
object: Moon
3. Light Rays
ď¨ Light leaves the surface of a luminous object in all
directions but if some of the light is made to pass
through a hole it can be seen to travel through a small
gap.
ď¨ Smaller rays of light are called rays.
Although the Sun
radiates light in all
directions, the sides
of sunbeams seem
almost parallel
because the Sun is
a very distant
luminous object.
4. Classifying non-luminous
objects
ď¨ Non-luminous materials can be classified as
transparent, translucent or opaque.
ď¨ Transparent materials let light pass through it.
ď¨ Translucent materials let some of the light pass through
but many light rays are scattered.
ď¨ Opaque materials do not let light pass through it.
Transparent Translucent Opaque
5. Shadows
ď¨ A region without light is called a shadow.
ď¨ The shape of the shadow may not be identical to the
shape of the object because the shadowâs shape
depends on the position of the light source and on
where the shadow falls.
ď¨ The size and intensity of the shadow depends on the
size of the light source and the distance between the
light source and the object.
6. Reflecting Light
ď¨ The way light is reflected from a surface depends on
whether the surface is smooth or rough.
7. Reflecting Light
ď¨ The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence
on glass, still water and polished metal.
ď¨ When the reflected light reaches your eyes you see an
image.
8. Reflecting Light
ď¨ There are two kinds of images that can be formed with
light: real images and virtual images.
ď¨ Real images are images such as those produced on a
cinema screen by biconvex lenses.
9. Reflecting Light
ď¨ Virtual images cannot be projected onto a surface but
only appear to exist, such as those in a plane mirror or
other smooth, shiny surface.
ď¨ The virtual image of yourself is the same size as you
are, and is at the same distance from the mirrorâs
surface as you are but behind the mirror instead in front
of it.
ď¨ Your image in the mirror is the wrong way
around, because your left shoulder will appear to be
your right shoulder.
10. Reflecting Light
ď¨ Two plane mirrors my be used to give a person
at the back of a crowd a view of an event.
ď¨ This device is called a periscope.
11. Reflecting Light
ď¨ Most objects have rough surfaces.
ď¨ When light rays strike any rough surfaces the rays are
scattered in different directions.
12. Passing light through transparent
materials
ď¨ If a ray of light is shone on a still glass block, the light
ray will pass straight through.
ď¨ If a ray of light is shone on a tilted glass block, the light
ray will refract.
ď¨ Refraction is the bending of the light ray.
ď¨ Light is refracted if the incident ray is not at 90° to the
surface of the transparent material.
13. The Prism
ď¨ A triangular prism is a glass or plastic block with a
triangular cross-section.
ď¨ Light behaves as if it travels in waves. The white light
from the sun contains light of different wavelengths
which give different colored light.
ď¨ When they pass through a prism the light waves of
different wavelengths at slightly different speeds and are
spread out to form the colors of the spectrum.
14. The Rainbow
ď¨ A rainbow is produced by the refraction and reflection of
the Sunâs light through the water drops.
15. Color-Absorbing and Reflecting
Colors
ď¨ If all the colors are reflected the object appears white; if
all the colors are absorbed the object appears black.
ď¨ Most objects absorb some colors and reflect others.
16. Color-Filtering Colors
ď¨ Sheets of colored plastic or glass can filter the colors in
light.
ď¨ They absorb some colors and allow other colors to pass
through, producing different colored light.
17. Color-Combining Colors
ď¨ All the colors can be made from different combinations
of just three colors.
ď¨ They are called the primary colors of light:
red, green, and blue.
ď¨ When the primary colors of light overlap, they produce
secondary colors of light: cyan, magenta, and
yellow, and white.