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Light Acts As A Wave and A Particle

Light can act as both a wave and particle. Ancient Greeks believed it was particles, while in the 17th century Huygens proposed it was a wave. Experiments in the late 18th and early 19th centuries supported both theories. The early 20th century saw a return to the particle theory to explain phenomena like the photoelectric effect. Light behaves differently depending on the medium, following laws of reflection and refraction at boundaries. It can be regularly or diffusely reflected, and its speed and wavelength change in different materials.

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Jhanice Pejo Policarpio
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65 views

Light Acts As A Wave and A Particle

Light can act as both a wave and particle. Ancient Greeks believed it was particles, while in the 17th century Huygens proposed it was a wave. Experiments in the late 18th and early 19th centuries supported both theories. The early 20th century saw a return to the particle theory to explain phenomena like the photoelectric effect. Light behaves differently depending on the medium, following laws of reflection and refraction at boundaries. It can be regularly or diffusely reflected, and its speed and wavelength change in different materials.

Uploaded by

Jhanice Pejo Policarpio
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER VIII

Light Acts as a
Wave and a Particle
The nature and properties of light have fascinated people since
ancient times such as the Sun, stars, fire flies, glow worms and other
objects that produce visible light. You may be also been amazed to the
things that are simply illuminated by light-producing bodies like moon,
planets, and everything else on earth. You see them because they reflect
the light illuminated on them.

LIGHT
is a form of energy that enables people to see things.

acts like a wave under certain circumstances. But under other situations, it acts
like a particle.

Greeks believed that light is composed of corpuscles or tiny particles emitted


from a light source.

In 1678, newton’s contemporary, Christian Huygens, a dutch scientist,


proposed that light is a wave.
CORPUSCLE THEORY

Sir Isaac Newton used this theory of light to explain


reflection and refraction of light.
While Christian Huygens used this theory to explain many
properties of light.

Thomas Young
In 1801,he discovered that light exhibit interference behavior
giving strong support to the wave theory.
James Clerk Maxwell

In 1865, he developed a brilliant idea that


electromagnetic waves travel with the speed of
light

Mack Planck and Albert Einstein

In the early part of the 20th century, they returned to the


particle theory of light to explain radiation emitted by
hot bodies and electrons emitted by metal exposed to
light.
LESSON 8.1
Reflection and Refraction of
Light
REFLECTION OF LIGHT
•In the activity, you observed that light travels in a straight line when it
goes in a single medium.On the other hand when light travels from one
medium to another, it can either be reflected or refracted or both.

•Figure 8.1 shows how light behaves when it is incident on a mirror or a


shiny object or smooth surface.Note that when traveling in air in a straight
line encounters a reflecting surface(like a mirror),reflection occurs and the
reflected ray emerges from the point of incidence.
In the illustration, a normal line is drawn perpendicular
to the mirror at the point of incidence. The incident ray
makes an angle of incidence i, with the normal. The
reflected ray emerges from the point of incidence making
an angle of reflection r , with the normal. It is established
that the angle of incidence i , is equal to the angle of
reflection r.
The incident ray and the reflected ray obey the laws of
reflection.
These laws are stated as follows:
1. The incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal
line perpendicular to the reflecting surface at the
point of incidence all lie on the same plane.
2. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of
reflection or i = r
These two laws of reflection are observed when light is reflected
from surface regardless of the nature of the surface

Figure 8.2 Reflection of parallel rays on a smooth surface.

Assuming that parallel rays are incident on a smooth surface the


reflected rays will be parallel also(see Figure 8.2)
If these parallel light rays encounter a rough surface, the rays are
incident on the surface at many different angles and therefore, will
be reflected at many different angles, too. This is a case of irregular
reflection and is called, diffuse reflection. Figure 8.3 shows a
diffuse reflection.

Figure 8.3 diffuse reflection of parallel rays


REFRACTION OF LIGHT
• Refraction
 
- is the change in velocity of light as it enters another medium.

Recall that the speed of light in air is 3 x m/s. When it enters another medium say
water, its speed decreases. In water it decreases to a smaller value of 2.26 x m/s. When it
enters water obliquely, light slows down and bends(see figure 8.4)

Figure 8.4. Light crosses the boundary between two media at different angles
Figure 8.5 Light slow down when it travels from Air to Water
Light travels in a straight line as long as the medium in
which it is travelling is uniform all throughout. Light tends
to slow down the moment it encounters a boundary
between two media if different optical densities.
When light enters another medium obliquely, or at a certain
angle with the normal boundary between the two media, it
bends (either a way or toward the normal depending upon
which of the two media is denser or less dense)

This shows that a change in speed takes place and wave


lengths became shorter. Water has a greater index of
refraction than air.
REFRACTION
(n) , thus define as the ratio of two speed of light between two
media in a mathematical form.

Refractive index of basic substance n = speed of light in a vacuum


speed of light in the substance

Whenever refraction takes place, Snell’s law is followed:

SNELLS’ LAW
States that the ratio of the sinc of the angle of
incidence to the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of
the index of refraction of the second medium of the index
of the first medium.
=
•  

==

Where; i = is the angle of incidence


r = is angle of refraction
n1= index of refraction of 1st medium
n2= index of refraction of 2nd medium
v1=speed of light 1st medium
v2= speed of light 2nd medium
•  
SAMPLE PROBLEM
The speed of light in air is 3 x 10s m/s. calculate the speed of light in
glass if its refracted index is 1.5. if the angle of incidence in air is 30
degrees, find the angle of refraction in the glass.
given: n of glass is 1.5
n of air is 1.0
v of light in air = 3 x m/s
I of light in air= 30 degrees
Require to find: speed of light in glass and the angle of refraction in glass.
solution: (a) v in glass=== 2 x 10 m/s
(b) sin r ==== 0.3333
r= 19.47 degrees
How does light interact w/ matter?
A ray of light travels in a straight line until it encounter some
particles of matters. Several factors determine happens when the ray of
light encounters a surface:
a. nature of the material
b. smoothness of the materials
c. the angle at w/c the ray of light as incident on
the
surface.

When the material is very smooth, the ray of light are reflected when
in its enough, the ray of light reflected in many random question where
diffuse reflection takes place.
DIFFUSE REFLECTION
provides light in shaded places where there is no direct
lightning.

Transparent materials allow light to be transmitted through them.


Opaque materials reflect, absorb or do combinations of partly
reflecting and partly observing light.

Reflected light varies in wavelength w/c results in the result of


perception of color. On the other hand, when light is absorbed it gives up
its energy to the material and can be remitted at a diff. wavelength or
converted to heat energy w/c then increase temperature of the material
the angle at w/c light strikes the surface of the material and the nature of
the material determine weather light is absorbed or transmitted through
the material.
THAT’S ALL…
THANK YOU
PREPARED BY:
 BRON, ABEGAIL
 POLICARPIO, JELYN
 ALCANTARA, JENINA ROSE

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