PROPERTIES OF LIGHT AND INTERACTION OF LIGHT WITH

MATTER

Submitted to: Mam Asma Shaheen

by

Abid Asghar-002
Muhammad Usama Khan-009
Kashif Shabbir-015
Shehroz Ali Nasir-017

Department: B.S. Chemistry

Session: 2016-2020

Semester: 5th
Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Contents
 Light
 Properties of light
 Interaction of light
 Reference

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Light
Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The word
usually refers to visible light, which is the visible spectrum that is visible to the human eye and is
responsible for the sense of sight.
Properties of light:
In particular, we examine the following:
Reflection and reflection:
Light travels in a straight line. It can either be reflected or refracted.
The process through which light rays falling on the surface on an object are sent back is called reflection
of light. Thus, when light falls on the surface of an object it sends back the light.
The objects having shiny or polished surface reflects more light compared to the objects having dull or
unpolished surface. Silver metal is the best reflector of light. This is why plane mirror is made by
depositing a thin layer of silver metal on one side of a plane glass sheet. The silver coating is protected
by a red paint.
The straight line along which the light travels is called ray of light.
Laws of reflection of light
Before understanding the laws of reflection of light, lets understand the meaning of some important
terms such as, incident ray, reflected ray, point of incidence, normal (at the point of incidence), angle of
incidence and angle of reflection.
Incident ray: The ray of light falling on the surface of a mirror is called incident ray.
Point of incidence: The point at which the incident ray falls on the mirror surface is called point of
incidence.
Reflected ray: The ray of light which is sent back by the mirror from the point of incidence is called
reflected ray.
Normal: A line perpendicular or at the right angle to the mirror surface at the point of incidence is
called normal.
Angle of incidence: The angle made by the incident ray with the normal is called angle of incidence.
Angle of reflection: The angle made by the reflected ray with the normal at point of incidence is
called angle of reflection.

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

First law of reflection: According to the first law, the incident ray, reflected ray and normal, all lie in
the same plane.
Second law of reflection: According to the second law, the angle of reflection is always equal to the
angle of incidence.
Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another or from a gradual
change in the medium. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but other waves
such as sound waves and water waves also experience refraction. How much a wave is refracted is
determined by the change in wave speed and the initial direction of wave propagation relative to the
direction of change in speed. For light, refraction follows Snell's law

Snell's law
Snell's law states that the ratio of the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction is equivalent to the
ratio of phase velocities in the two media, or equivalent to the reciprocal of the ratio of the indices of
refraction:

sin 𝜃2 𝑣2 𝑛1
= =
sin 𝜃1 𝑣1 𝑛2

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Diffraction
Diffraction is the slight bending of light as it passes around the edge of an object. The amount of
bending depends on the relative size of the wavelength of light to the size of the opening. If the opening
is much larger than the light's wavelength, the bending will be almost unnoticeable. However, if the two
are closer in size or equal, the amount of bending is considerable, and easily seen with the naked eye.
Optical effects resulting from diffraction are produced through the interference of light waves.
Interference
Two waves having same frequency travelling in the same direction produce interference.
Young's Double Slit Experiment
This is a classic example of interference effects in light waves. Two light rays pass through two slits,
separated by a distance d and strike a screen a distance, L, from the slits.

If the rays were in phase; Two waves (of the same wavelength) are said to be in phase if the crests (and
troughs) of one wave coincide with the crests (and troughs) of the other, when they passed through the
slits, these produce constructive interference.

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

If the rays were out of phase when they passed through the slits, these produce destructive interference;
they cancel the effect of each other.
The points of constructive interference will appear as bright bands on the screen and the points of
destructive interference will appear as dark bands. These dark and bright spots are called interference
fringes.

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Polarization:
Natural sunlight and almost every other form of artificial illumination transmits light waves whose
electric field vectors vibrate in all perpendicular planes with respect to the direction of propagation.
When the electric field vectors are restricted to a single plane by filtration, then the light is said to be
polarized with respect to the direction of propagation and all waves vibrate in the same plane.

Polarizer 1 is oriented vertically to the incident beam so it will pass only the waves that are vertical in
the incident beam. The wave passing through polarizer 1 is subsequently blocked by polarizer 2 because
the second polarizer is oriented horizontally with respect to the electric field vector in the light wave.
The concept of using two polarizers oriented at right angles with respect to each other is commonly
termed crossed polarization and is fundamental to the practice of polarized light microscopy.

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Example:
An excellent example of the basic application of liquid crystals to display devices can be found in the
seven-segment LCD numerical display

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

How does light interact with matter?

Light can interact with matter in three ways: absorption, transmission, and reflection.
ABSORPTION:
When a light wave with an identical frequency to an electron’s natural frequency “impinges” upon an
atom, the electrons will begin to vibrate as a result (almost like they are “set in motion”). The electrons
will absorb the light wave (because it has the same vibrational frequency) and turn it into a vibrational
motion (sort like it “matches” with the vibrational waves). The electrons, in turn, bump up against
neighboring atoms, which changes the vibrations into thermal energy (think of when one cheering
section at a baseball game starts doing the “wave”, which prompts all the other section to join in the
fun). This thermal energy is not turned back into light energy, thus that particular light wave never
leaves the object again. This is ABSORPTION.
REFLECTION:
This occurs when the frequency of the incoming light wave does not match that of the electrons’ natural
frequency. If the object is opaque (not see-through/solid color), the electron vibrations are not “passed
down” like during absorption. Rather, the surface-level electrons vibrate briefly before emitting that
wave back out (as light). This is REFLECTION.
TRANSMISSION:
Transmission works along the same lines as reflection, except it involves transparent or semi-
transparent objects. The atoms take in the wave, vibrate briefly (but at a small amplitude – not like
during absorption, when they vibrate with large amplitudes), transfer the vibrations throughout the body
of the material, and then re-emit the wave as light out the other end. This is TRANSMISSION.

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Properties of Light…………….Analytical Chemistry

Reference:

 https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/amp/reflection-of-light-
1455278459-1
 https://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/physics/light/node9.html
 https://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/eens211/proplight.htm