OPTICS

Light
● It is the natural agent that stimulates sight and makes things visible.
● The speed of light in a vacuum is 3 x 10^8 m/s.
● It takes about 8.3 minutes to reach the Earth. The Sunlight reflected from moon
takes 1.28 sec to reach earth.
● Sunlight is a portion of the electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun,
particularly infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light. Sunlight on the skin is an
effective source of vitamin D.
● The study of lighting is called as Fulminology
● When a light rays pass through collide, it scatters after striking fine particles. This
is known as Tyndall effect

Reflection of Light
Reflection is when light bounces off an object.
Laws of Reflection :
● The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the reflection surface at the
point of the incidence lie in the same plane.
● The angle which the incident ray makes with the normal is equal to the angle
which the reflected ray makes to the same normal: i = r
● The reflected ray and the incident ray are on the opposite sides of the normal.

Plane mirror
● It is simply a mirror with a flat surface.
● In case of plane mirror the image is at the same distance from the mirror as
the object appears to be (i.e., the image distance = the object distance)
● The image produced is upright. The image is the same size as the object
● Also the image is laterally inverted i.e. image has opposite left and right in
comparison to the object. The image formed by the plane mirror is always
Virtual and erect
● Plane mirror shows lateral inversion.
● The number of images formed when two mirrors are placed at an angle θ to
each other is given by-
● N= (360/θ) - 1
Spherical Mirror
It is a mirror which has the shape of a piece cut out of a spherical surface.
There are two types of spherical mirrors:

Concave Mirror :
❖ Its inner side of the surface of a spherical mirror is polished to reflect light.
❖ It converges parallel beam of light, therefore it is also called Converging
Mirror.
Convex Mirror :
❖ Its outer side of the surface of a spherical mirror is polished to reflect light.
❖ It diverges parallel beam light, therefore it is also called a Diverging mirror.
Image formation through Spherical Mirrors

Mirror Formula
1/v+1/u =1/f
Where, v = image distance
u = object distance
f = focal length.
Uses of Mirrors
1. Plane mirror : looking glass, constructing periscope, solar cookers,
kaleidoscope, measuring instruments
2. Concave Mirror : headlights of cars, dentist's mirror, solar devices, reflecting
telescopes, satellite dishes, flash-lights, electron microscopes, etc.
3. Convex mirror : street lamps, real view mirror, etc.

Refraction of Light
● When the light rays either bend or change their direction while passing from
one medium to another it is called refraction of light.
● The refraction of light takes place when light travels from air into glass, from
glass into air, from air into water or from water into air etc.
● The example of optical instruments that work on the basis of refraction of light
are camera, microscope etc.
● Twinkling of stars is mainly due to REFRACTION

From Above figure,

★ Incident ray: The light rays passing from air into glass or water are called
incident rays.
★ Refracted ray: When the light rays bend after passing into another medium,
they are called refracted rays.
 ★ Normal: The point of incidence is called normal.
★ Angle of incidence: The angle between incident ray and normal is called angle
of incidence.
★ Angle of refraction: The angle between refracted ray and normal is called
angle of refraction.

Causes of refraction
Light travels at different speeds in different mediums. For example light travels faster
in air than in a glass. Therefore, it is due to the change of speed of light in different
mediums that the light rays are refracted.
● Optically rarer medium
A transparent substance (medium) in which the speed of light is more is called
optically rarer medium.
● Optically denser medium
A transparent substance (medium) in which the speed of light is less is known
as optically denser medium.Glass is an optically denser medium than air and
water.
Laws of refraction of light

1) The incident ray, refracted ray and normal at the point of incidence, all lie in the
same plane, i.e. the surface.

2) The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction is constant
for a given pair of media

3) Sine of angle of incidence/ sine of angle of refraction = Constant

Constant is called the refractive index. Or Sin i/ Sin r = constant

Refractive index and speed of light

Refractive index of medium 2 with respect to medium 1 is equal to the ratio of speed
of light in medium 1 to the speed of light in medium 2.
Relative refractive index

● When light travels from one medium to another other than vacuum and air,
then the value of the refractive index is called the relative refractive index.
● Refractive Index = Speed of light in vacuum/ Speed of light in medium
● Or Refractive index = Speed of light in medium 1/ Speed of Light in medium 2
● For example, light traveling from water into glass.

Absolute refractive index

● When light travels from vacuum to another medium, it is called absolute

refractive index.
● The substance that has a higher refractive index is optically denser than
another substance having a lower refractive index.
● Also, the refractive index for light going from medium 1 to medium 2 is equal
to the reciprocal of the refractive index of light going from medium to 2 to
medium 1.

Lens

● Lens is a transparent glass which is bounded by two spherical surfaces.

● The light rays are refracted after passing through the lens. It is of two types,
convex lens and concave lens.

Convex or converging lens:

● It is a positive lens.
● Convex lenses are thicker at the middle.
 ● Rays of light that pass through the lens are brought closer together (they
converge). Hence it is called Converging Lens
● When parallel rays of light pass through a convex lens the refracted rays
converge at one point called the principal focus.
● The distance between the principal focus and the center of the lens is called
the focal length.

Concave or Diverging lens

● It is a negative lens.
● Convex lenses are thinner at the middle.
● Rays of light that pass through the lens are spread out (they diverge). Hence
It is called Diverging Lens
● When parallel rays of light pass through a concave lens the refracted rays
diverge so that they appear to come from one point called the principal focus.
● The distance between the principal focus and the center of the lens is called
the focal length.
● The image formed is virtual and diminished (smaller).
Image formation through convex lens
Image formation through concave lens

Lens formula
1/v-1/u =1/f
Where, v = image distance
u = object distance
f = focal length

Power of a Lens or Optical Power

● It is the degree to which a lens, mirror, or other optical system converges
or diverges light.
● The power of a lens is defined as the reciprocal of its focal length in
meters.
● Power of lens = 1f (in meter)
● The unit of power is diopter (D).
 ● 1 D = 1merte= m-1

Total Internal Reflection

● It occurs when light attempts to move from a medium having a given
refractive index to a medium having a lower refractive index
● When light is incident upon a medium of lesser index of refraction, the
ray is bent away from the normal, so the exit angle is greater than the
incident angle. Such reflection is commonly called "internal reflection".
● The exit angle will then approach 90° for some critical incident angle θc,
and for incident angles greater than the critical angle there will be total
internal reflection.
● e.g. formation of mirage, air bubbles in glass paper weight appears
silvery white, Sparkling of diamond, etc.
Human Eye
● The human eye is an optical instrument just like a photographic camera.
● It forms the real image of the object on the retina of the eye.
● The human eye has a 200-degree viewing angle and can see 10 million
colors and shades.
● For the normal eye, the range of vision is from 25 cm to infinity.

Various parts of the eye

● The front part of the eye called the cornea is made of a transparent substance
and its outer surface is convex in shape.
● It is through the cornea that the light coming from objects enters the eyes.
● Just behind the cornea is the iris which is also called coloured diaphragm.
 ● A hole in the middle of the iris is called the pupil.Iris controls the amount of
light entering the eye. Pupil allows the light to enter into our eyes
● Then behind it is the eye lens which is a convex lens.
● It is due to the support of ciliary muscles that the eye lens is held in position.
● The eye lens is flexible and thus can change its focal length and shape with
the help of ciliary muscles.
● Behind the eye lens is the retina on which the image is formed in the eye.

Working of Human Eye

● The light rays coming from the object enter the eyes through the pupil and fall
on the eye lens.
● The eye lens then converges the light rays and produces an image of the
object on the retina which is real and inverted.
● Retina has a large number of light-sensitive cells that can generate electrical
signals. After the image is formed on the retina it sends electrical signals to
the brain and we have a sensation of image.
● Also, even though the image formed on the retina is inverted our mind
interprets it as erect.

The function of iris and pupil

● The function of iris is to adjust the size of the pupil.
 ● If the amount of light entering the eye is less then the pupil expands so that
more light can enter the eye and in case the amount of light entering the eye
is large then the pupil contracts.
● The adjustment of the size of the pupil takes some time and this is the reason
when we go outside in the sunlight from a dark room we feel glare in our eyes
or if we enter a dark room after coming from outside we see things clearly
after some time.

How do we see colours?

● The light-sensitive cells in the retina of our eye are of two shapes; rod shaped
and cone shape.
● The function of rod-shaped cells is to respond to the brightness of the light.
And the function of cone-shaped cells is to make us see colors and
distinguish between them

Defects of vision and their corrections

Myopia (Short-sightedness or Near-sightedness)
The defect of an eye in which it cannot see the distant objects clearly is called
myopia. A person with myopia can see nearby objects clearly.
Reason :
➢ High converging power of the lens:- Due to this the image is formed in front of
the retina and a person cannot see clearly the distant objects.
➢ Eye-ball being too long:- Due to elongation retina becomes at a larger
distance from the eye-lens.
➢ In this case, also the image is formed in front of the retina even though the
eye-lens has correct converging power.
Correction
 ● Myopia or short-sightedness can be corrected by wearing spectacles
containing a concave lens.
● A concave lens is used for a myopic eye so as to decrease the converging
power of the eye-lens.

Hypermetropia (Long-sightedness or Far-sightedness)

Hypermetropia or long-sightedness is a defect of an eye where a person cannot see

nearby objects clearly. The near-point of the hypermetropic eye is more than 25 cm
away.

Reason:
➢ Low converging power of eye-lens
➢ Eye-ball being too short
➢ Due to these two reasons , the image of an object is formed behind the retina
and therefore, a person cannot see clearly nearby objects.

Correction:
● The condition of hypermetropia can be corrected by putting a convex lens in
front of the eye.
 ● A convex lens is used for hypermetropia so as to increase the converging
power of the eye-lens.

Astigmatism :
The curvature of the cornea becomes irregular and the image is not clear.
Cylindrical lens is used for correcting this defect.

Presbyopia :
 ● The power of accommodation of the eye lens decreases in old age.
● Therefore neither near nor distant objects are clearly seen.
● Presbyopia can be removed by using bifocal lenses.

Glaucoma :
● Glaucoma is a disease that damages your eye’s optic nerve.
● It usually happens when fluid builds up in the front part of your eye.
● That extra fluid increases the pressure in your eye, damaging the optic
nerve.