Human Eye and Colourful

World

The Human Eye: It is a natural optical instrument which is used to see the
objects by human beings. It is like a camera which has a lens and screen
system.

Structure of the Human Eye

The various parts of eye and their functions :

 Retina: It is a light sensitive screen inside the eye on which image

is formed. It contains rods and cones.
 Cornea: It is a thin membrane which covers the eye trail. It acts
like a lens which refracts the light entering the eye.
 Aqueous humour: It is fluid which fills the space between cornea
and eye lens.
 Eye lens: It is a convex lens made of transparent and flexible jelly
like material. Its curvature can be adjusted with the help of ciliary
muscles.
 Pupil: It is a hole in the middle of iris through which light enters
the eye. It appears black because light falling on it goes into the
eye and does not come back.
 Ciliary muscles: These are the muscles which are attached to eye
lens and can modify the shape of eye lens which leads to the
variation in focal lengths.
  Iris: It controls the amount of light entering the eye by changing
the size of the pupil.
 Optical nerve: These are the nerves which take the image to the
brain in the form of electrical signals.

The human eye is roughly spherical in shape with a diameter of about 2.3
cm. It consists of a convex lens made up of living tissues. Hence, human
lenses are living organs contrary to the simple optical lenses. The following
table lists the main parts of the human eye and their respective functions.

No. Human Eye Part Functions

Opens and closes in order to regulate and control the amount of

1. Pupil
light.

2. Iris Controls light level similar to the aperture of a camera.

3. Sclera Protects the outer coat.

A thin membrane which provides 67% of the eye’s focusing

4. Cornea
power.

5. Crystalline lens Helps to focus light into the retina.

6. Conjunctive Covers the outer surface (visible part) of the eye.

7. Aqueous humour Provides power to the cornea.

8. Vitreous humour Provides the eye with its form and shape.

Captures the light rays focussed by the lens and sends impulses
9. Retina
to the brain via the optic nerve..

10. Optic nerve Transmits electrical signals to the brain.

Contracts and extends in order to change the lens shape for

11. Ciliary muscles
focusing.

How Pupil Works?

For Example, You would have observed that when you come out of the
cinema hall after watching the movie in the bright sunlight, your eyes get
closed. And when you entered the hall from the bright light, you won’t be
able to see and after some time you would be able to see. Here, the pupil of
an eye provides a variable aperture, whose size is controlled by iris.
(a) When the light is bright: Iris contracts the pupil, so that less light enters
the eye.
(b) When the light is dim: Iris expands the pupil, so that more light enters the
eye.
Pupil opens completely when iris is relaxed.

Persistence of Vision: It is the time for which the sensation of an object

continue in the eye. It is about 1/16th of a second.

Power of Accommodation: The ability of the eye lens to adjust its focal
length accordingly as the distances is called power of accommodation.

Colour Blindness: A person having defective cone cells is not able to

distinguish between the different colours. This defect is known as Colour
Blindness.

Defects of Vision and their Correction

Myopia (Short-sightedness): It is a kind of defect in the human eye due to
which a person can see near objects clearly but he cannot see the distant
objects clearly. Myopia is due to
(i) excessive curvature of the cornea.
(ii) elongation of eyeball.

Correction: Since a concave lens has an ability to diverge incoming rays, it

is used to correct this defect of vision. The image is allowed to format the
retina by using a concave lens of suitable power as shown in the given
figure.

Hypermetropia (Long-sightedness): It is a kind of defect in the human

eye due to which, a person can see distant objects properly but cannot see
the nearby objects clearly. It happens due to
(i) decrease in the power of eye lens i.e., increase in focal length of eye lens.
(ii) shortening of eyeball.

A hypermetropic eye has its least distance of distinct vision greater than 25
cm.
Correction: Since a convex lens has the ability to converge incoming rays, it
can be used to correct this defect of vision, as you already have seen in the
animation. The ray diagram for the corrective measure for a hypermetropic
eye is shown in the given figure.

Power of the correcting convex lens:

The Lens formula, 1v−1u=1f can be used to calculate the focal length and
hence, the power of the myopia correcting lens.
In this case,
Object distance, u = ∞
Image distance, v =
person’s far point Focal length, f =?
Hence, lens formula becomes

In case of a concave lens, the image is formed in front of the lens i.e., on the
same side of the
object.
Focal length = -Far point
Now, power of the required lens (P) = 1f(inm)
Power of the correcting convex lens: Lens formula, 1v−1u=1f can be
used to calculate focal length f and hence, power P of the correcting convex
lens, where,
Object distance, u = -25 cm, normal near point
Image distance, v = defective near point
Hence, the lens formula is reduced to
1v+125=1f
Presbyopia: It is a kind of defect in human eye which occurs due to ageing.
It happens due to the following reasons
(i) decrease in flexibility of eye lens.
(ii) gradual weakening of ciliary muscles.
In this, a person may suffer from both myopia and hypermetropia.
Correction: By using a bifocal lens with appropriate power. Bifocal lenses
consist of both concave and convex lens, upper position consists of the
concave lens and lower portion consists of a convex lens.

Astigmatism: It is a kind of defect in human eye due to which a person

cannot see (focus) simultaneously horizontal and vertical lines both.

Correction: By using a cylindrical lens.

Cataract: Due to the membrane growth over eye lens, the eye lens
becomes hazy or even opaque. This leads to a decrease or loss of vision. This
problem is called a cataract. It can be corrected only by surgery.

Refraction of light through a prism, Dispersion of white light by a glass prism,

Composition of white light, Recombination of spectrum colours, Rainbow.

Refraction of light through a prism: When a ray of light is incident on a

rectangular glass slab, after refracting through the slab, it gets displaced
laterally. As a result, the emergent ray comes out parallel to the incident ray.
Unlike a rectangular slab, the side of a glass prism are inclined at an angle
called the angle of prism.

Prism: A prism has two triangular bases and three

Angle of Prism: Angle between two lateral faces is

Angle of Deviation: The angle between the incident deviation.

Dispersion of white light by a glass prism: The phenomenon of splitting

of white light into its seven constituent colours when it passes through a
glass prism is called dispersion of white light. The various colours seen are
Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. The sequence of colours
remembers as VIBGYOR. The band of seven colours is called the spectrum.
The different component colour of light bends at a different angle with
respect to the incident angle. The violet light bends the least while the red
bends most.

Composition of white light: White light consists of seven colours i.e.,

violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

Monochromatic light: Light consisting of single colour or wavelength is

called monochromatic light, example; sodium light.

Polychromatic light: Light consisting of more than two colours or

wavelengths is called polychromatic light, example; white light.

Recombination of white light: Newton found that when an inverted prism

is placed in the path of dispersed light then after passing through the prism,
they recombine to form white light.

Issac Newton: He was the first, who obtained spectrum of sunlight by using
glass prism. He tried to split the spectrum of white light more by using
another similar prism, but he could not get any more colours.
He repeated the experiment using second prism in inverted position with
respect to the first prism. It allowed all the colours of spectrum to pass
through second prism. He found white light emerges on the other side of
second prism.

He concluded that Sun is made up of seven visible colour VIBGYOR.

Rainbow: It is the spectrum of sunlight in nature. It is formed due to the

dispersion of sunlight by the tiny water droplet, present in the atmosphere.
Formation of the rainbow: The water droplets act like small prism. They
refract and disperse the incident sunlight, then reflect it internally, and
finally refract it again when it comes out of the raindrop. Due to the
dispersion of light and internal reflection, different colours reach the
observer’s eye.
Red colour appears on top and violet at the bottom of rainbow.
A rainbow is always formed in a direction opposite to that of Sun.
At ‘A’ – Refraction and dispersion take place.
At ‘B’ – Internal reflection takes place.
At ‘C’ – Refraction and dispersion take place.

Atmospheric Refraction: The refraction of light caused by the Earth’s

atmosphere (having air layers of varying optical densities) is called
Atmospheric Refraction.

Appearance of Star Position: It is due to atmospheric refraction of star

light.
The temperature and density of different layer of atmosphere keeps varying.
Hence, we have different medium.
Distant star act as point source of light. When the starlight enter the Earth’s
atmosphere, it undergoes refraction continuously, due to changing refractive
index i.e. from Rarer to denser. It bends towards the normal.
Due to this, the apparent position of the star is different from actual position.
The star appear higher than its actual position.
Twinkling of Star: It is also due to atmospheric refraction.
Distant star act like a point source of light. As the beam of starlight keeps
deviating from its path, the apparent position of star keeps on changing
because physical condition of earth’s atmosphere is not stationary.
Hence, the amount of light enters our eyes fluctuate sometimes bright and
sometime dim. This is the “Twinkling effect of star”.

Why planets do not twinkle ?

Planets are closer to earth and are seen as extended source of light i.e. the
collection of large number of point sized sources of light. Therefore the total
amount of light entering our eyes from all individual point source will nullify
the twinkling effect.

Why, the duration of day becomes approximately 4 minutes shorter if there

is no atmosphere on earth: Actual sun rise happens when it is below the
horizon in the morning. The rays of light from the sun below the horizon
reach our eyes because of refraction of light. Similarly, the sun can be seen
about few minutes after the actual sun set. Thus the duration of, day time
will increase by 4 minutes.
This is due to atmospheric refraction. Because of this sun is visible about 2
minutes earlier than actual sunrise and about 2 minutes after the actual sun
set.

Apparent flattering of the Sun’s disc at sunset and sunrise is due to

atmospheric refraction.

scattered light ∝ 1λ4 (λ = wavelength)

Scattering of light: According to Rayleigh’ Law of Scattering, the amount of

Scattering of light decreases with increase in wavelength.

Tyndall Effect: When a beam of light strikes, the minute particle of earth’s
atmosphere, suspended particles of dust and molecule of air the path of
beam become visible. The phenomenon of scattering of light by the colloidal
particle gives rise to Tyndall Effect.
It can be observed when sunlight passes through a canopy of a dense forest.
The colour of the scattered light depends on the size of the scattering
particles.

Colour of Sunrise and Sunset: While sunset and sunrise, the colour of the
sun and its surroundihg appear red. During sunset and sunrise, the sun is
near to horizon, and therefore, the sunlight has to travel larger distance in
atmosphere. Due to this, most of the blue light (shorter wavelength) is
scattered away by the particles. The light of longer wavelength (red colour)
reaches our eye. This is why sun appear red in colour.

Why the danger signal or sign is made of red colour?

Red colour scatteres the most when strikes the small particle of fog and
smoke because it has the maximum wavelength (visible spectrum). Hence,
from large distance also, we can see the red colour clearly.

At noon sun appears white: At noon, the sun is overhead and sunlight would
travel shorter distance relatively through the atmosphere. Hence, at noon,
the sun appear white as only little of the blue and violet colours are
scattered.

Human Eye: It is a wonderful gift of nature to the human body. Human eye
is nearly spherical in shape of diameter about 2.5 cm.

Parts of Human Eye:

  Cornea: It is the protective and front layer of the eye. It is made
by a transparent membrane. Light enters the eye through the
cornea.
 Iris: Dark and a colourful muscular diaphragm is called iris. It is
responsible for colour of the eye.
 Pupil: Small circular hole in the centre of iris. It regulates the
amount of light entering the eye by adjusting the size of the iris.
 Ciliary Muscles: It holds the eye lens at its proper position. It
changes the size of eye lens.
 Eye lens: The eye lens is a convex lens made by the transparent
jelly like material.
 Retina: It is the screen of the eye. A real and inverted image
form on the retina.
 Rods and Cones: These are colour sensitive rods and cones
shaped cells. Rods are responsible for the vision in dim light while
cones are responsible for colour.
 Optic Nerve: It converts information of the image into a
corresponding electric signal and passes it to the brain.
 Blind Spot: The junction of the optic nerve and retina, where no
rods and cones cells are present is called the blind spot. It is
insensitive to light.

Near Point: The nearest point from eye at which the eye can see clearly
without strain is called near point. For normal eye it is 25 cm.

Far Point: The farthest point, upto which the eye can see the object clearly
is called far point. For normal eye it is infinity.

The range of Vision: Distance between near point and far point of eye is
called range of vision.

Power of Accommodation: The ability of the eye to see near as well as far
objects clearly is called Power of Accommodation.

Myopia (Nearsightedness): In this defect, the eye is unable to see far off
objects clearly but is able to see near objects clearly.
Reason.

 Due to increase in size of eye ball

 Due to excessive curvature of cornea
 Due to increase in power (or decrease in focal length) of eye lens.

Correction: It is corrected by using concave lens of suitable focal length.

Hypermetropia (Far sightedness): In this defect eye is unable to see
nearby objects clearly but is able to see far objects clearly.
Reason.

 Due to decrease in size of eye ball

 Due to decrease in power (or increase in focal length) of eye lens.

Correction: It is corrected by using a convex lens of suitable focal length.

Dispersion of Light: Splitting of white light into seven colours is called

dispersion. Example, the formation of Rainbow (VIBGYOR). Violet deviates
the most but red deviates least.

Select Start > Settings > System > Display, and choose a screen
orientation from the drop-down list labelled Orientation.