GENERAL PHYSICS 2

MODULE
LIGHT and OPTICS

I. THE NATURE OF LIGHT: A HISTORY

 Is a light a particle, a wave or both a particle and wave?
 Light has been studied extensively but its fundamental nature is still a mystery.
 Pythagoras postulated that light was a particle during the 6th century BC.
 Before the beginning of the 19th century, light was also considered to be a stream of particles that either was
emitted by the object being viewed or emanated from the eyes of the viewer.
 Isaac Newton formulated the corpuscles theories in support of the particle nature of light.
 Newton was able to explain reflection and refraction using the idea that particles were emitted from a light
source.
 In 1678, Christian Huygens showed that a wave theory of light could also explain reflection and refraction.
 It was 1801 when Thomas Young provided a clear demonstration of the wave nature of light.
 In his experiment, he showed that light rays interfere with each other under appropriate conditions. Such
behavior could not be explained at that time by a particle theory because there was no conceivable way in
which two or more particles could come together and cancel each other.
 Maxwell’s work was the most important that led to the acceptance of the wave theory of light during the 19th
century. He asserted that light is a form of high frequency electromagnetic wave.
 Hertz proved Maxwell’s conclusion by producing and detecting electromagnetic waves in 1887.
 He also discovered the photoelectric effect which contradicted the wave theory.
 An explanation of the photoelectric effect was proposed by Einstein in 1905 in a theory that used the concept of
quantization developed by Max Planck in 1900.
 The quantization model assumes that the energy of a light wave is present in particles called photons; hence
energy is said to be quantized.
 According to Einstein’s theory, the energy of photon is proportional to the frequency of the
electromagnetic wave:
E  hf Wherein:
E = Energy
h = Planck’s Constant

Note: Thus, light can behave like a particle and like a wave depending on the experiment used to study it.
 Light is a wave can be seen in some experiments involving the interference of light through single
and double slits.
 Einstein showed that light also behaved like a particle, or photon. Photons knocked electrons out
of metal in a manner that could only be explained by particle theory.
These developments led to a conclusion that light has a dual nature: LIGHT AS A PARTICLE AND A WAVE.

II. PATH AND SPEED OF LIGHT

 Light travels in a straight line path with a speed of 3.0 x 108 m/s.
 A thin beam of light is often called a RAY.
 When light hits an opaques barrier, a shadow will be formed.
 The darker part of the shadow is called UMBRA.
 The lighter part is the PENUMBRA.
 ECLIPSE is an example of shadow formation when light coming from the sun hits an opaque barrier such
as moon and Earth.

III. WAVE CHARACTERISTICS OF LIGHT

 Light is considered a TRANSVERSE WAVE according to the direction of the particle and wave. The direction
of the wave is perpendicular with the particle.
 Characteristics of the transverse wave:
 Crest is the highest point of a transverse wave.
 Trough is the lowest point of a transverse wave.
 Period (T) is the time needed to make one complete wave.
 Frequency (f ) is the number of waves produced per unit time.
 Amplitude (A) is the vertical displacement from the equilibrium position.

 Wavelength ( ) is the horizontal displacement from crest to crest or trough to trough of a wave.

In analogy with the basic formula in kinematics,

For a wave speed formula, it becomes, Wave Speed (v)= =

We can derive the formula:

Since

Also the wave speed formula

Note: For light v= c;

 Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum but when light travels in a denser material, it
slows down.
 Visible light is the only part of electromagnetic spectrum that can be seen by the human eye.

IV. ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

 As shown in the figure above, radio wave has the longest wavelength but the lowest frequency and energy. The
longer the wavelength, the lower the frequency and energy.
 Gamma ray has the highest frequency and energy but the shortest wavelength.
 Visible light is the presence of all visible light spectrum such as R, O, Y, G, B, V which is found in between the
infraRED and ultraVIOLET rays in the spectrum. Thus, red has the longest while violet has the shortest
wavelength. In terms of frequency and energy, violet has trhe greatest.
V. LIGHT AND COLORS
 Even we have functionaing eyes, without light we can’t see anything and the colors of different object depend
on the colors of the light that illuminates them.
 White light is not a color rather it is the presence of all frequencies of visible light while black is the absence of
the visible light spectrum.
 WHITE is capable of reflecting all visible light spectrum while BLACK is capable of absorbing all visible light
spectrum and converted it to heat energy.
Primary Colors of Light Secondary Colors of Light
1. Red (R) 1. Yellow (Y) = R + G
2. Blue (B) 2. Cyan (C) = B + G
3. Green (G) 3. Magenta (M) = B + R
 When the colors of light with varying degrees of intensity are mixed/added, another color will be produced.
 White light can also be formed when the three primary colors with the same intensity are added.
W=R+B+G
Complementary Colors of Light
1. Red + Cyan = White
2. Green + Magenta = White
3. Blue + Yellow = White
 The color of object is not in the object but rather in the light which reflects off or transmits through the object.
In color subtraction, the ultimate color appearance of an object is determined by beginning with a single color
or mixture of colors and identifying which color or colors of light are subtracted from yhr original set.
VI. REFLECTION OF LIGHT
 When a light ray travelling in one medium encounters an opaque barrier, part of it will be reflected.
2 KINDS OF REFLECTIONS
 Specular Reflection -
happens if the reflected
light is from a smooth
surface, will produce a
regular reflection..
 Diffuse Reflection - occurs
if the incident light hit a
rough surface.

 LAW OF REFLECTION

 States that the angle of incidence is equal to the

angle of reflection.
 In symbols: ; =angle of incidence, = angle of reflection
 The normal line is always drawn perpendicular with the reflecting surface. Angle of incidence and
reflection is measured from the normal line.

 MULTIPLE REFLECTION OF LIGHT

 When light hits reflecting surfaces several times,

multiple images will be formed.
 If the angle between two reflecting surfaces such as
mirror decreases, the number of images formed increases.
 To determine the number of images that can be formed
between two mirrors hinged together at an angle is:
 Number of images = ; where = angle between two mirrors.

VII. REFRACTION OF LIGHT

 Light bends when it travels obliquely from one transparent
medium to another. Light is bent toward or away from the
normal as it changes its speed when traveling through
different optical media.
 A measure of how slow or fast light travels from one
medium to another is called the index of refraction (optical
density).

Index of refraction (n) = ; where in: c = speed of light in a

vacuum, v = speed of light in a given medium
 Index of refraction is a dimensionless quantity and its value is
always greater or equal to 1 since light travels fastest in a
vacuum than any other medium.
 When the first medium has greater index of refraction than the
second medium, light bends away from the normal. If medium 2 is denser than medium 1, light bends towards
the normal.
 Snell’s law is the basic law of refraction that shows the relationship between the angles of incidence and
refraction.
Wherein:

- index of refraction of the first medium - angle of incidence

- index of refraction of the second medium - angle of refraction

VIII. DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT
 It is the bending of light waves around objects it passes and spreads out after passing through the narrow slits
which give rise to a diffraction pattern due to interference between light rays that travel different distances.
 IX. INTERFERENCE OF LIGHT
 Interference of wave is the meeting or superimposing of one wave to another wave.
TYPES OF INTERFERENCE:
 Constructive Interference - When a crest meets another crest or a trough meets another trough,
the resulting wave is being reinforced forming a supercrest or supertrough.
 Destructive Interference - When crest meets trough, it will result to cancellation of wave.

X. GEOMETRIC OPTICS
 Images can be formed either by reflection or
refraction of light as it hits an opaque or
transparent medium respectively. The image
formation can be illustrated by RAY DIAGRAMS
and can also be proven mathematically using the
mirror or thin lens equation and magnification.
 Some important quantities/terms needed in the
image formation by lens or mirror:
 Object distance (do) - Distance of the object
from the mirror or lens.
 Image distance (di) - Distance of the image
from the mirror/lens.
 Focal length (f) - half of the radius of curvature (R) of the reflecting or refracting surfaces; the distance
between the center of the mirror/lens to the focal point (F).
 Focal point (F) - the point where incident parallel rays come come to a focus after reflection/refraction.
 Principal Axis - straight line perpendicular to the flat or curved reflecting or refracting surfaces.
  Magnification (m) - dimensionless quantity which tells whether the image formed is maximize, diminish
or same size as the object.
 Image size (hi) - size of the image
 Object’s size (ho) - size of the object
 Images formed by a mirror/lens can be real or virtual, erect or inverted. Real images are usually inverted while
virtual images are erect.
 Inverted image - is an image formed which turns upside down.
 Real image - is formed when light rays pass through and diverge from the image point and can be
displayed on the screen.
 Erect image - is an image formed in upright position.
 Virtual image - do not pass through the image point but only appear to diverge from the point and cannot
be displayed on the screen.
 Images can also be diminished, maximize or same size as the object.
 Diminished image - is the image formed that is smaller than the object.
 Maximize image - is the image formed that is larger than the image.
 Same size - is the image formed that is similar to the size of the object.
m = 1 - object is same size as the image
m < 1 - diminished image
m > 1 - maximize image