11/12

PHYSICAL SCIENCE
QUARTER 2 – MODULE 3

Nature of Light
 Lesson

Nature of Light
1
What’s In
In the previous lesson, you have learned about the assertion of Galileo and
Newton on motion. Galileo asserted that when there is no friction between the
surface and the object, the object will continue to move or will continue its state of
motion, unless a push or pull was applied to the moving object. Galileo called this
tendency of matter to remain in its state, inertia.
The concept presented by Galileo was the inspiration of Sir Isaac Newton.
Both scientists implied that when no force is applied to the object, object’s inertia
would keeo the object in its state.
In this lesson you will learn about light. You will also be able to describe light
as a particle and as a wave. Through learning these, you will also be able to describe
how light propagates, reflects and refracts using the wave model and the particle
model of light.

What’s New

Activity 3.1 Draw the path of the light

Observe a flashlight. Switch it on and draw the path of the light you see from the
flashlight.
You may draw it on a pice of paper and answer the guide questions below.
1. What is the path of the light that you have observed?
2. Do you think it has particles? Did it behave as a wave just like what happens
in water?

What Is It

You may have observed the light’s path was scattered at a certain conical
shape. According to Sir Isaac Newton, light travels in straight lines and its particles
may seem to move fast/
Light can travel in a straight path in a vacuum. When light hits a surface it
bounces (reflection) or bends (refraction), scatters (diffraction) or transmits from one
medium to another. If so, what is light? Is it a particle or a wave?

2
 Particle Theory or Corpuscles Theory
The corpuscles theory or particle theory was suggested by Sir Isaa Newton. Sir
Isaac Newton's prism experiments was a proof that light traveled as a shower of
particles, each proceeding in a straight line until it was refracted, absorbed, reflected,
diffracted or disturbed in some other manner.
Wave Theory
A number of scientists in the early 1700s did not agree with his corpuscular
theory.They have argued that if light consisted of particles, then when two beams are
crossed, some of the particles would collide and cancel each other. Christian
Huygens, a dutch physicist, suggested that light waves traveled through space.
Let’s take a look how these two theories described different interaction of light as
a particle and a wave.
Interaction of
Particle Theory Wave Theory
Light
Reflection Particles collide with the surface As the wave hits a smooth
and bounce back. surface, the wave bounce back
(bouncing of light) producing a reversed image of
the wave.
Refraction Newton felt that light does not . If light slows down, it will
travel around corners. He refract towards the normal line.
(bending of light) explained that any observed If light speeds up, it will refract
effect of this caused by the away from the normal line.
interaction of particles when they Refraction is responsible for
run into each other at the edges the image formation by the
of the objects. lenses and the eye.
Diffraction Newton believed increase in The slight bending of light as it
speed of the light particles would passes around the edge of an
(slight bending of cause the particles’ path to bend object which depends on the
light) towards the normal. relative size of the wavelength
of light to the size of the
opening.
Dispersion Newton explained that particles of different mass would be affected
differently when refracted
(the separation of
light into colors)

What’s More

Activity 3.2 Differentiate It

Read the questions below. Anser the questions briefly on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What is the difference of the corpuscle theory and wave theory?

3
2. How does the corpuscle theory explain light’s nature?
3. How does wave theory explain the nature of light?

What I Have Learned

Activity 3.3 Sharing My Insights

Explain the difference of Particle theory and wave theory in your own words.

What I Can Do

Activity 3.4 Reflecting Me

Fill the statement below with what you have learned.
Now, I have learned that .
I know that .
And I also learned that .
Lastly, I know that .

4
 Lesson

Light’s Energy
2
What’s In

In the previous lesson you have learned about corpuscle theory and wave theory.
Corpuscle theory describes light as a particle and wave theory described the tendecy of
light to behave like wave. Light is an electromagnetic wave. It has a frequency of 4 x
1014Hz to 7.90 x1012 Hz. The wavelength of light ranges from 380nm to 750nm.
In this lesson, you will be able to explain how the photon concept and the fact that
the energy of a photon is directly proportional to its frequency can be used to explain
why red light is used in photographic dark rooms, why we get easily sun burned in
ultraviolet light but not in visible light and how we see colors.

What’s New

Activity 3.5. Word Search Puzzle

DIRECTIONS: Find the words on the word search puzzle.
Color Visible Ultraviolet Photon Light Spectrum

5
 Great job! The words that you have formed seem familiar to you. In your previous module
you have learned that light propagates as a wave and as a particle. In this module, we look at
light as a particle.

What Is It

Now, let’s learn more about the how we see colors with our naked eye.

Photon

Light can be described as a particle (photon) or a wave (electromagnetic wave). The

electromagnetic wave can be pictured as oscillating electric and magnetic fields that move in
a straight line at a constant velocity (the speed of light).

Photon is defined as a discrete bundle of electromagnetic energy moving at the speed of

light, has no rest mass but has momentum, and carries energy.

Photon Theory

The composition of atoms are electrons, protons and neutrons. In an atom, electrons are
located at specific energy levels. Ay a given certain amount of energy, electrons can move
from lower energy level to higher energy level.

Photon theory of light states that photon is composed of electromagnetic energy. This
energy may be given to an electron during collision and causes the movement of the electron
to a higher energy level. After 10-8s, the electron will return to its energy level and will emit
light in the form of photons.

The light formed has a certain wavelength and has specific colors. The series of colored
lines may be observed with black spaced in between them and it is called atomic spectra.
Elements have different set of spectra.

Photoelectric effect

Photoelectric effect was proposed by Albert Einstein in 1905. Photoelectric effect refers
to a photon incident to a metal surface and transfer all its energy to the electron. For each
frequency or color of the incident light, each photon carried energy.

Increasing incident of photons means increasing the intensity of light and energy of the
photons remained the same. This means that increasing the incident photons, more electrons
are ejected.

Energy of a photon is directly proportional to frequency. Increasing the frequency of light

would increase the energy of the ejected electrons. This leads to the reason behind the
arrangement of the visible spectrum of light. The visible spectrum of light shows that red color
has the least frequency, which means it also has the least energy.

Due to this property of the red light, photographers use red light so that the light-sensitive
papers they use would not be overexposed and may ruin the pictures.

6
Color Spectra

Colors are not natural to objects. The colors of the objects appear due to the light they
emit. Colors are determined by the frequencies. Colors are only perceived by the human
brain. When the light reaches the eye, the receptor cell of the eye or retina, gives signal to the
brain, which interprets the image with colors. As the frequency increases, the color gradually
changes from red to violet.

Ultraviolet radiation

Photons of different colors have different energies. Red light has low frequency and long
wavelength, this means that red light has low energy. On the other hand, blue has a higher
frequency and shorter wavelength, which means it has more energy. Ultraviolet light is
beyond the visible light, this means it has higher frequency and shorter wavelength. This
explains why we get easily sunburned when exposed under ultraviolet rays of light.

7
 What’s More

Activity 3.6. Fill Me

DIRECTIONS: Fill the table below with the wavelength of the different light wave.

Color Wavelength

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Indigo

Violet

What I Have Learned

Activity 3.7 Identify Me!

DIRECTIONS: Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if the statement is incorrect.
1. Photon is a particle just like an atom.
2. Photon has mass.
3. Electrons can move to higher energy level.
4. All atoms have the same spectra.
5. Isaac Newton proposed that light is composed of photons.
6. Photons carry energy.
7. Colors are innate to objects.
8. Colors are determined due to the differences in
frequencies.
9. Blue light has higher frquency than red light.
10. Ultraviolet ray is harmful to human.

8
 What I Can Do

Activity 3.8 Electromagnetic spectrum

DIRECTIONS: Draw a diagram showing the electromagnetic spectrum and label its name
and wavelength.

Activity 3.2.5 Short Answer

DIRECTIONS: Answer the questions briefly.

1. Why do photographers use red light?

2. Why do we get easily sunburned when you are exposed to ultraviolet?

3. Why do we see different colors?

Additional Activities

Read about the article entitled, The Life Cycle of a Photon at

https://www.asu.edu/courses/phs208/patternsbb/PiN/rdg/photon/photon.shtml.
Write a short reflection about the reading.

9
 Assessment: (Post-Test)

Multiple Choice. Select the letter of the best answer from among the given choices.
1. What phenomenon is a result of the bending of light particles?
A. Refraction B. Reflection C. Interference D. Dispersion
2. The separation of colors in a rainbow is an example of .
A. refraction B. reflection C. interference D. dispersion
3. What is the wavelength of light?
A. 300nm to 500 nm C.350nm to 650 nm
B. 380nm to 750nm D. 390nm to 790 nm
4. Which of the following theory is Sir Isaac Newton's that states that prism experiments was
a proof that light traveled as a shower of particles?
A. Wave Theory C. Electromagnetic Theory
B. Corpuscle’s Theory D. Diffraction Theory
5. Which of the following statements is true?
A. Light behaves like particles.
B. Light behaves like fluid and fabric.
C. Light behaves like particle and wave.
D. Light does not resemble any form of mattert.
6. Under which type of light do we easily get sunburned?
A. Infrared B. Microwave light C. Ultraviolet light D. Visible light
7. Which of the following situations exemplifies the dispersion property of light?
A. The image of the flower in a mirror
B. The sparkling glow of the diamond ring
C. The swaying movement of coin under water
D. The rainbow in the sky after the rain shower
8. What theory states that photon is composed of electromagnetic energy?
A. Electromagnetic theory C. Photoelectric effect
B. Photon theory D. Spectrum Theory
9. Who was the scientist who proposed the photoelectric effect?
A. Einstein B. Galileo C. Hertz D. Newton

10
10. What causes sun burn?
A. Lower wavelength C. Low frequency
B. Higher wavelength D. High frequency
11. What is the term used to indicate the particle of light?
A. Electron B. Neutron C.Photon D. Proton
12. Energy of a light particle is frequency.
A. directly proportional to C. equal to
B. inversely proportional to D. less than
13. What refers to a photon incident to a metal surface and transfer all its energy to the
electron?
A. Electromagnetism C. Photoelectric effect
B. Electromagnetic spectrum D. Photon
14. Why do photographers use red light?
A. Because it has greater energy
B. Because it has lesser energy
C. Because it is a color that absorbs other colors
D. Because it is a color that reflects other colors.
15. Why does a blue t-shirt appear blue?

A. Blue is absorbed by the t-shirt

B. Blue is emitted by the t-shirt
C. Blue is reflected by the t-shirt
D. Blue is refracted by the t-shirt

11
12