The Bishop's Co-Ed School, KLN

ISC Physics Project

2021-2022

Light
Name: Bhoomi Dhoka
Class: 11 A(Science)
Computer Code: 212588
Teacher: Mr. Ganesh Pawar
 Certificate
This is to certify that Bhoomi Dhoka, of Class 11 –
A (Science), of the Bishop's Co-ed School, Kalyani
Nagar, Pune, has successfully completed the
research project on the topic “ Light", under the
guidance of Mr. Ganesh Pawar (Physics Teacher),
in the fulfilment of the ISC 2021-2022 Physics
Project
 Acknowledgement
I am incredibly grateful to our Principle, Mr. Shayne
McPherson, and Headmaster, Mr. Ashley Eates,
for giving us the opportunity to enhance our
knowledge. I would also like to thank our Physics
Teacher, Mr. Ganesh Pawar, for helping us, and
encouraging us to perform research and gain a better
understanding of the topic in this question.

I am also thankful to my parents, for providing me

with everything I needed to complete the project.
 Index
• Introduction
• Light rays
• Reflection of light
• Applications of Reflection of light
• Refraction of light
• Applications of Refraction of light
• Total internal reflection of light
• Applications of Total Internal Reflection of light
• Dispersion of light
• Applications of Dispersion of light
• Law of linear mass-density
 Introduction
Light, electromagnetic radiation that can be detected by the human eye.
Electromagnetic radiation occurs over an extremely wide range of
wavelengths, from gamma rays with wavelengths less than about 1 ×
10^−11 metres to radio waves measured in metres. Within that broad-
spectrum, the wavelengths visible to humans occupy a very narrow
band, from about 700 nm for red light down to about 400 nm for violet
light. The spectral regions adjacent to the visible band are often referred
to as light also, infrared at the one end and ultraviolet at the other. The
speed of light in a vacuum is a fundamental physical constant, the
currently accepted value of which is exactly 299,792,458 metres per
second, or about 186,282 miles per second.
 Light rays
A hypothetical construct that indicates the direction of the propagation of
light at any point in space. The origin of this concept dates back to early
speculations regarding the nature of light. By the 17th century, the
Pythagorean notion of visual rays had long been abandoned, but the
observation that light travels in straight lines led naturally to the
development of the ray concept. It is easy to imagine representing a
narrow beam of light by a collection of parallel arrows—a bundle of rays.
As the beam of light moves from one medium to another, reflects off
surfaces, disperses, or comes to a focus, the bundle of rays traces the
beam’s progress in a simple geometrical manner.
 Reflection of light
Reflection is the phenomenon in which light travelling in one medium,
incident on the surface of another returns to the first medium, obeying the
laws of reflection.

The reflection of light from a smooth surface in

which the incident light rays are reflected from the
surface such that the angle of reflection equals
the angle of incidence is called specular reflection.

The reflection of light from a rough surface in which

the incident light rays are reflected from the surface
at many different angles is called diffuse reflection.
 Applications of Reflection of Light
• Meters like ammeters and voltmeters use a
mirror to avoid parallax error. The reading is
taken from a position such that the image of the
pointer is directly under the pointer.

• The wing and rear-view mirrors of a car are made

of a convex and a plane mirror respectively. The
two wing mirrors enable the driver to see objects
on both sides of the car. The rear-view mirror
enables the driver to see things behind the car.
 Refraction of light
When light travelling in one medium encounters a
boundary with a second medium (e.g., air and glass), a
portion of the light is reflected and a portion is
transmitted into the second medium. As the transmitted
light moves into the second medium, it changes its
direction of travel; that is, it is refracted.
Also known as Snell’s law, describes the relationship
between the angle of incidence (θ1) and the angle of
refraction (θ2), measured with respect to the normal to
the surface, in mathematical terms: n1*sin θ1 = n2*sin
θ2, where n1 and n2 are the index of refraction of the
first and second media, respectively.
 Applications of Refraction of light
• The air in the atmosphere isn’t all the same. Some
areas are thicker, and some areas are thinner.
Therefore, when you go out at night and look at the
stars, they appear to twinkle. This twinkling happens
as light refracts as it passes through the different
layers of the atmosphere.

• Human eyes have a lens. The lens, or cornea,

works to refract light onto the retina. The image is
then sent through your optic nerve to the brain.
 Total internal reflection of light
The phenomenon occurs when the light rays travel from a
more optically denser medium to a less optically denser
medium.
A ray of light passes from a medium of water to that of air.
Since it passes from a medium of a higher refractive index to
that having a lower refractive index, the refracted light ray
bends away from the normal. At a specific angle of incidence,
the incident ray of light is refracted in such a way that it
passes along the surface of the water. This particular angle of
incidence is called the critical angle. Here the angle of
refraction is 90°. When the angle of incidence is greater than
the critical angle, the incident ray is reflected back to the
medium. We call this phenomenon total internal reflection.
 Applications of Total Internal Reflection
of light
• When light is directed down a narrow fibre, the light
repeatedly reflects off the fibre-air interface at a large
incident angle—larger than the critical angle (the critical
angle is about 42°). Optical fibres with diameters from
10 to 50 micrometres can transmit light over long
distances with little loss of intensity . Optical
communications use sequences of light pulses to
transmit information through an optical fibre network.

• Medical instruments such as endoscopes rely on the

total internal reflection of light through an optical fibre
bundle to image internal organs.
 Dispersion of light
The phenomenon of splitting visible light into its
component colours is called dispersion. It is
caused by a variation of the index of refraction of
glass with colour. This effect, known as chromatic
dispersion, results from the fact that the speed of
light in glass depends on the wavelength of the
light. The speed slightly decreases with
decreasing wavelength; this means that the index
of refraction, which is inversely proportional to
the speed, slightly increases with decreasing
wavelength.
 Applications of Dispersion of light
• Formation of a rainbow.

• Petrol poured on the water will show different

colours.

• The prism splits the light into different colours

on passing through it.

• Dispersion of colours in soap bubbles.

• Dispersion of colours on CDs.

• Dispersion could be seen from plastic scales.

 Bibliography
• britannica.com
• byjus.com
• sciencelearn.org.nz
• toppr.com
• sciencephoto.com
• smartclass4kids.com
• aplustopper.com
• examples.yourdictionary.com
• concise physics Part II Textbook by I.C.S.E.