7

K EEPING AN EYE ON LIGHT

How do you know that the spotlights below are not really sucking in darkness rather than emitting light? Light is certainly puzzling. You cannot usually see light, yet without it you cannot see at all.

KEY
Distinguish between absorption, reection, refraction and scattering of light. Apply the laws of reection and refraction to everyday situations. Explain how the structure of the eye allows vision. Describe light as a form of wave not requiring a medium. Describe how scientists from many cultures have contributed to our understanding of light, and how this has evolved as a result of available evidence.

QUESTIONS

Why do your legs look shorter when you are standing in water? How does a lens bend light? Why is the lens in your eye more like jelly than glass? How do glasses help some people see more clearly? How is it possible to take a photograph inside a living human body? Why is the sky blue? Why is the sun so red at sunset? Why is it so important that you wear sunglasses and choose them wisely?

Thinking about

Light
1. What is light?
Without light you are in the dark. You need light to see your world clearly. Have you stopped to think about what light is and where it comes from? (a) With a partner, make a list of anything you already know about light. Take time to discuss what you know and explain ideas to each other when necessary. (b) Write a report on your discussion using the following points. Group together the words or ideas that are connected and use each group of words as the basis for a paragraph. Include a paragraph that covers ideas or words that you do not fully understand. Use the table below as a guide in developing your report. Outline of your report Start with a general statement that introduces the topic.

3. Light words, heavy meanings

beam opaque scattering translucent ray transparent astigmatism hyperopia photokeratitis cataracts myopia ciliary muscle iris retina cones lens receptors biconcave diverging biconvex focal length inversion

Light is . . . Light has special properties , Paragraph 1 such as , and which make it very useful in our lives. Without light, we would live in
Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 etc.

Describe different aspects of light. Write a paragraph for each group of ideas. Your ideas could focus on some of the following: uses, appearance, behaviour, sources, benets, effects of no light. Describe what you do not fully understand.

Last paragraph

There is a lot to know about light. We need to learn more about

(c) Once your report is completed, be prepared to share it with your class. When listening to other reports, make a note of new ideas that were not included in your report.

2. Sunglasses
(a) Why do you wear sunglasses? Which types are best? (b) WORK What have you learnt from advertisements for sunglasses? Discuss why you bought the sunglasses you use, and why you wear them. (c) Make a poster advertising the ultimate pair of sunglasses for maximum protection.

(a) The words in this table have been grouped together. Can you think of a heading for each group? Which words gave you clues for the headings you have chosen? (b) Under your chosen headings, write out these word lists in your workbook (leave a line after each word). Beside each word that you already know, write a sentence using it. If you are unsure how to pronounce any of the words, check to see if it is in the pronunciation guide in the back of the book. (c) As you go through this chapter and read these words, check your sentences or add new ones. You may need to rewrite or correct sentences if you notice that you have used a word incorrectly.

4. Why is the sky blue?

Why is the sky blue? Why is the sky red at sunset? How are rainbows formed? These questions are often asked by young children, yet few adults can answer them! Choose one and write the answer that you would give. Make a list of points that explain your answer, and draw a diagram to show what you think is happening.
WORK
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7.1 7.1

Riding on a light beam

You can get it at the ick of a switch or by striking a match. Without it there would be darkness. We call it light. Our main source of light energy is the sun. Light from the sun makes life on Earth possible and provides us with some beautiful images like rainbows and spectacular sunsets. Articial light provides us with brilliant laser shows at rock concerts and even images of unborn babies. Light travels in straight lines as it travels through empty space or through a uniform substance like air or water. The lines that are used to show the path of light are called rays. You cannot see a single light ray. A stream of light rays is called a beam. You can see beams of light only when particles in substances like air scatter the light as shown in the photograph below. Some of the scattered light enters your eye, allowing you to see the particles within the beam.

Tracing the path of light

The ray box shown in the photograph below provides a way of tracing the path of light. It contains a light source and a lens which can be moved to produce a wide beam of light that spreads out, converges or has parallel edges. The light box is placed on a sheet of white paper, making the beam visible as some of the light is reected from the paper into your eyes. Black plastic slides can be placed in front of the source to produce a single thin beam or several thin beams. The beams are narrow enough to trace with a ne pencil onto the white paper. The ne pencil line can be used to represent a single The ray box. It provides a way of tracing the path of light. ray.

Crossing boundaries
When light meets a boundary between two different substances, a number of things can happen.

On the rebound
The light may bounce off the surface of the substance. This is called reection, and is what allows you to see non-luminous objects. For example, light from a torch pointed at a door will be reected from the surface of the door and enter your eye, allowing you to see the door. Light can also be reected from particles suspended in a transparent substance. This is called scattering because the light bounces off in so many different directions. Light is scattered by the particles of fog, dust and smoke in the atmosphere. Scattering is also evident in water. A luminous object in very deep or dirty water is not visible from the surface because all of the light is scattered before it can emerge. The same object is more likely to be visible on the surface of shallower or cleaner water because less light would be scattered.

Just passing through

The light may travel through the substance. Some light is always reected when light crosses a boundary between two substances. If most of the light travels through the substance, the surface is called transparent because enough light gets through for you to be able to see objects clearly on the other side. Some materials let just enough light through to enable you to detect objects on the other side, but scatter so much light that you cant see them clearly. The frosty glass used in some shower screens is an example. Such materials are said to be translucent.

A beam of light can be seen if there is smoke or fog in the air. Light is scattered by the tiny particles. Some of the scattered light enters your eye, allowing you to see the particles within the beam.

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(a) YOU WILL NEED

7.1

S E E I NG T H E L IG HT
2. What happens to a beam of light when it meets each mirror surface (a) head on? (b) at an angle? Change the slide in the ray box so that you can project several parallel beams towards each of the obstacles. 3. Use a ruler to draw a small diagram showing the path followed by the parallel beams when they meet each of the obstacles.
ray box

ray box kit power supply several sheets of white paper ruler and ne pencil
Connect the ray box to the power supply. Place a sheet of white paper at on the bench in front of the ray box. Move the lens backwards and forwards until a beam of light with parallel edges is projected. Use one of the black plastic slides to produce a single thin beam of light that is clearly visible on the white paper. Trace the path of this single beam of light as it meets the lens, prism and each of the mirrors shown in the diagram on the right. The path can be traced by using pairs of very small crosses along the centre of the beam before and after meeting each obstacle. Trace and label the shape of each obstacle before you trace the light paths.

(b)

sheet of white paper

(c)

1. What happens to a beam of light when it meets a block of perspex: (a) head on? (b) at an angle?

plane mirror

concave mirror

convex mirror

lens

Tracing the path of a beam of light

Activities
Remember
1. What is a ray of light? 2. You can not usually see light as it travels through the air. What makes it possible to see a beam of light? 3. What happens to light when it travels through air and meets: (a) a transparent surface? (b) a translucent surface? (c) an opaque surface?
(a) Transparent (b) translucent and (c) opaque materials

4. Distinguish between the scattering of light and the reection of light by a plane mirror. 5. List one example of each of the following: (a) a transparent object (b) a translucent object (c) an opaque object.

Lost inside?
The light may be absorbed by the substance, transferring its energy to the particles in the substance. Substances which absorb or reect all the light striking them are said to be opaque. Most objects in your classroom are opaque.

Imagine
Imagine that the world is plunged into darkness by a mysterious cloud of dust. What problems would be caused by the lack of visible light if the cloud lingered for: (a) one hour? (b) three days? (c) six weeks?

Think
1. Explain the difference between a ray of light and a beam of light. 2. Why cant you see a ray of light? 3. Is the moon a luminous object? Explain your answer.

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7.2 7.2

What happened to my legs?

Looks can be deceiving! The person in the photograph below doesnt have unusually short legs. Everything you see is an image. An image of the scene you are looking at forms at the back of your eye. When light travels in straight lines, the image you see provides an accurate picture of what you are looking at. However, when light bends on its way to your eye, the image you see can be quite different.

7.2 F L OAT I N G CO IN S
YOU WILL NEED

2 beakers coin

evaporating dish

A change of

direction

Place a coin at the bottom of an empty beaker and look at it from above while your partner slowly adds water from another beaker. 1. How does the position of the coin appear to change while the water is being added? 2. Which other feature of the coin appears to change? Place the coin in the centre of an evaporating dish and move back just far enough so you can no longer see the coin. Remain in this position while your partner slowly adds water to the dish. 3. What appears to happen to the coin as water is added to the evaporating dish? Make a copy of the diagrams below. Use dotted lines to trace back the rays shown entering the observers eye to see where they seem to be coming from. This enables you to locate the centre of the image of the coin. 4. Is the image of the coin above or below the real coin?

Short legs? Not really.

observer

Inset Light bending away from the normal

apparent position of toe

real position of toe

Where is that toe?

When light travels from one substance into another substance that is transparent or translucent, it can slow down or speed up. This change in speed as light travels from one substance into another is called refraction. Refraction causes light to bend, unless it crosses at right angles to the boundary between the substances. The best way to describe which way the light bends is to draw a line at right angles to the boundary. This line is called the normal. When light speeds up, as it does when it passes from water into air, it bends away from the normal. When light slows down, as it does when it passes from air into water, it bends towards the normal. The light coming from the swimmers legs in the photograph above bends away from the normal as it emerges from the water into the air. The light arrives at the eyes of an observer as if it were coming from a different direction. The diagram on the left shows what happens to two rays of light coming from the swimmers right toe. To the observer, the rays appear to be coming from a point higher than the real position of the toe. It can be seen by looking at the diagrams (left and right) that the amount of bending depends on the angle at which the light crosses the boundary.

beaker water coin evaporating dish water coin

The image of the coin is not in the same place as the real coin.

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Refraction of light

Short legs

7.3
YOU WILL NEED

H O W M UC H D O E S I T BE N D?
sheet of white paper 3. Does all of the light travelling through the perspex re-enter the air? If not, what happens to it? 4. Look at the light beam as it enters and leaves the perspex. What do you notice about the direction of the incoming and emerging beams? Turn the rectangular prism so that the incoming beam enters the perspex at different angles. 5. How can you make the incoming light bend less when it enters the perspex? 6. How can you make the incoming light bend more when it enters the perspex? Now concentrate on the light beam inside the perspex. Turn the rectangular prism so that you make the beam inside the perspex bend further away from the normal. 7. What happens to the amount of light reected at the perspexair boundary as the prism is turned? See if you can turn the rectangular prism to a position that prevents the light beam from emerging from the perspex into the air. If you succeed, you have observed total internal reection. The light has bent so much that it cant get out of the perspex. Draw a diagram to show the path of the light beam through the prism that results in total internal reection. You can see another example of total internal reection by looking at the end of a sh tank from some positions. Try it!

ray box kit

power supply

Connect the ray box to the power supply. Place a sheet of white paper at on the bench in front of the ray box. Project a single thin beam of white light towards a rectangular perspex prism as shown in the diagram below.
ray box rectangular perspex prism to ray box) normal thin beam sheet of white paper

1. Does the light bend towards or away from the normal as it enters the perspex? (Remember that the normal is a line that can be drawn at right angles to the boundary of the prism. It is shown as a dotted line in the diagram. If it helps you, draw the line on the paper beneath the prism.) 2. Imagine a normal at the boundary where the light leaves the perspex to go back into the air. Which way does the light bend as it re-enters the air towards or away from the normal?

Activities
Remember
1. What is refraction? 2. Does light bend towards or away from the normal when it slows down while passing from air into water?

Investigate
Find out about the First Law of Refraction. Use a ray box and prism to carry out some experiments to prove the First Law of Refraction for yourself. Write up a report of your experiments.

Imagine
Imagine that you are the sh in the illustration below. (a) Will the image of the girls head be higher or lower than her real head? (b) Draw a sketch of how the girl might appear to you.
normal

Think
1. The illustration shows a ray of light emerging from still water after it has been reected from a sh. Should the spear be aimed in front of or behind the image of the sh? Use a diagram to explain why. 2. Draw a diagram to show a ray of light travelling through air to a perspex prism under water in a sh tank and back into the air again.

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7.3 7.3

Through the looking glass

Lenses are used in microscopes, telescopes, cameras and other instruments that bend light in order to form an image. The magnied picture in the comic on the left is actually an image of the real picture on the comics page. The light coming from the page is refracted twice rstly as it passes from the air into the glass and secondly as it emerges into the air.

7.4 S E ARCH IN G FOR AN I MAGE

YOU WILL NEED

Spreading out or closing in?

The diverging lens in the diagram below has a biconcave shape. It is curved inwards, like a cave, on both sides. A beam of light travelling through a biconcave lens spreads out (diverges). A magnifying glass is an example of a converging lens. Its shape is biconvex. That means it is curved outwards on both sides. A beam of light travelling through a biconvex lens closes in (converges) towards a point called the focus. The distance between the focus and the centre of the lens is called the focal length.
biconcave lens

candle matches jar lid to hold candle biconvex lens lens holder white card for screen Place the biconvex lens in the lens holder, with the candle about one metre in front of it. Light the candle, and move the white card backwards and forwards on the opposite side of the lens until a clear image of the ame is visible on it. 1. Is the image on the screen upright or inverted? Move the candle towards the lens, stopping every 10 cm or so, while you try to locate the image on the white card. Do not move the candle closer than about 10 cm from the lens. Dont be concerned if you cannot get a clear image on the card when the candle is close to the lens. 2. How does the image change as the candle is moved closer to the lens? Place the candle 5 cm from the lens. Attempt to nd an image on the screen. If you cannot, look through the lens towards the candle, observing the image in the lens. 3. When the candle is close to the lens, can an image be found on the screen? 4. When you look through the lens at the candle, you see an image. Is it upright or inverted? Is it larger or smaller than the real candle?

incoming beam

virtual focus

biconvex lens

incoming beam

focus focal length

Lenses are shaped so that light passing through them either spreads out or closes in.

Its unreal
A biconcave lens does not have a real focus. When parallel light rays emerge from a biconcave lens, they do not converge towards the same point. However, they do seem to be coming from a single point on the other side of the lens. That point is called the virtual focus.

Images formed by glass

When you look at an object through a lens, what you see is an image of the object. Sometimes it is larger than the object, sometimes it is smaller than the object. It can be upside down (inverted) or the right way up.

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Focus on lenses

7.5
YOU WILL NEED

F O C US I N G O N L IG HT
power supply ruler and ne pencil 1. Why doesnt the middle beam bend? 2. How many times do each of the other beams bend before arriving at the focus? Replace the thin biconvex lens with a thicker one and repeat the previous steps. 3. Which lens bends light more, the thin one or the thicker one? 4. How does the focal length of the thinner lens compare with that of the thicker lens? Turn the paper over and place the thinner of the two biconcave lenses on the paper and trace out its shape. Trace the path of each of the three thin light beams as they enter and emerge from the lens. Remove the lens from the paper so that you can draw the paths of the light beams through the lens. 5. Do the emerging rays come to a focus? 6. Do the emerging rays appear to be coming from the same direction? Use dotted lines on your diagram to check. 7. Make a prediction about the direction from which the same three incoming rays would emerge from a thicker biconcave lens. Check your prediction with the thicker biconcave lens in the kit.

ray box kit sheet of white paper

Connect the ray box to the power supply. Place a sheet of white paper on the bench in front of the ray box. Place the thinner of the two biconvex lenses in the kit on the paper and trace out its shape. Project three thin parallel beams of white light towards the lens.
biconvex lens three thin parallel beams of light

ray box sheet of white paper

Trace the paths of the light beams as they enter and emerge from the lens. Remove the lens from the paper so that you can draw the paths of the light beams through the lens.

Its the position that counts

Biconvex lenses produce three types of image. When an object is distant, the image is inverted and smaller than the object (e.g. the image of a person made on photographic lm by a camera). When an object is close to the lens, but not closer than the focal point, the image is inverted and larger than the object (e.g. the image of a small slide produced on a screen by a slide projector). When an object is closer to the lens than the focal point, the image is upright and larger than the object (e.g. the image you see in a magnifying glass).

Activities
Remember
1. Name and sketch the shape of a lens that makes a beam of light converge. 2. Name and sketch the shape of a lens that makes a beam of light diverge. 3. What does the focal length of a converging lens measure?

Imagine
You are given a biconvex lens and asked to make a rough estimate of its focal length. (You are told that it is less than 30 cm.) How could you do this: (a) on a sunny day? (b) inside your classroom on a cloudy day?

Think
1. List some devices (other than those listed at the top of page 158) that contain lenses. 2. A diverging lens does not make rays bend towards a single point, yet it has a focal length. Explain why. 3. Explain why the focus of a diverging lens is called a virtual focus.

Create
Use two or more lenses and lens holders to make a model telescope on a laboratory workbench.

Investigate
1. Find out how lenses are made. 2. Find out how a refracting telescope works. How is it different from a reecting telescope?

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7.4 7.4

Its the image that counts

Everything that you see is an image! A sharp image of what you are looking at is formed on a ciliary muscle screen at the back of your eye. This retina suspensory screen, called the ligaments retina, is lined with sight recepiris tors called rods optic pupil nerve and cones. These light-sensitive lens cells respond to cornea light by sending signals to your brain through Side view of a the optic nerve. human eye to brain Some of the light reected from your surroundings, along with light emitted from luminous objects like the sun, enters your eye. It is refracted (bent) as it passes through the cornea, the transparent outer surface of the eye. The cornea is curved, so that light converges towards the pupil. Light then passes through the clear, jelly-like lens and focuses on the retina. Most of the bending of light done by the eye occurs at the cornea. On its way to the lens, the light travels through a hole in the coloured iris called the pupil. The iris is a ring of muscle which controls the amount of light entering the lens. In a dark room the iris contracts to allow as much of the available light as possible through the pupil. In bright sunlight the iris relaxes, making the pupil small to prevent too much light from entering. The lens bends the light further, ensuring that the image formed on the retina is sharp. The image formed on the retina is inverted. However, the brain is able to process the signals coming from the retina so that you see things the right way up.

Getting things in focus

Although most of the bending of light by the eye occurs at the cornea, it is the lens that ensures that the image you see is sharp. The shape of the lens is controlled by the ciliary muscles. When you look at distant objects, these muscles are relaxed and the lens is thin. When you look at nearby objects, the ciliary muscles contract. The suspensory ligaments become slack, causing the lens to bulge. This action of the lens in obtaining a sharp image on the retina is called accommodation.

light from a distant object lens

light from a nearby object

The light coming from a nearby object needs to be bent more than the light coming from a distant object. The lens in your eye becomes thicker when you look at nearby objects.

The image formed on the retina is upside down, but the brain sees it the right way up.

Each human eye contains just one biconvex lens. Insects have compound eyes. Each eye contains many lenses. Some types of dragony have more than 10 000 lenses in each eye. Each eye can focus light coming from only one direction.

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Your eye

7.6 G ETT I NG A C LE AR I M A GE
YOU WILL NEED

Too close for comfort

As you get older, the tissues that make up the lens become less exible. The lens does not change its shape as easily. Images of very close objects (like the words you are reading now) become blurred. The lens does not bulge as much as it should and the light from nearby objects converges to a point behind the retina instead of on the retina. You may have to hold what you are reading further away in order to obtain a clear image. This means you do not have 20/20 vision. Having 20/20 vision means you can read letters of a certain height from a distance of 20 feet (approximately six metres). This change in accommodation with age is a natural process. Some people are not inconvenienced at all while others need to wear reading glasses so that they can read more easily and comfortably. Optometrists use a retinoscope to measure how the lens in your eye bends light. Then they work out the lens required to correct the problem. This information will be written down so the lens maker can make up the correct glasses for your eyes. The table below shows how the smallest distance at which a clear image can be obtained changes with age. The distances shown are averages and there is a lot of variation from person to person.
Age compared with average smallest distance at which a clear image can be obtained (cm) Age (years) Distance (cm) 10 7.5 20 9 30 12 40 18 50 50 60 125

ruler Look closely at the X printed here from the smallest distance at which you can see it clearly and sharply with comfort. Quickly look away and focus on a distant object for a second or two and then focus on the X again from the smaller distance. Try to feel the action of the muscles that allow you to see a sharp image of the X. Use the following procedure to estimate the smallest distance at which you can obtain a clear image of a nearby object. (If you are wearing glasses, remove them during this part of the experiment.) Hold this book vertically at arms length from your eyes and focus on it. Move the book to a position about three or four centimetres from your eyes and then gradually move the book further away until you can see the print clearly and sharply. Have a partner use the ruler to estimate the distance between the page and your eyes. The ruler should be placed carefully beside your head for this measurement. Record the distance measured. Collate the results for the whole class and determine the average smallest distance at which a clear image could be obtained. 1. How does your result compare with the average smallest distance for your class? 2. Write down the highest single result and lowest single result for your class. Comment on the range of results.

Activities
Remember
1. How does the eye send messages to your brain? 2. Where in the human eye does most of the bending of light occur? 3. What is accommodation? 4. Sketch the shape of the lens in the eye when you are viewing: (a) a nearby object (b) a distant object. 5. Explain how the lens in your eye is able to change its shape.

Investigate
How is a camera like an eye? Find out which parts of the camera: (a) bend incoming light (b) control the amount of light falling on the lm (c) act as the screen, like the retina of the eye.

Using data
Use the data in the table above to draw a line graph to show how the ability to focus on nearby objects changes with age. 1. Use your graph to predict the smallest distance at which a clear image can be obtained by an average person of your age. 2. At what age does the decrease in focusing ability appear to be most rapid?

Think
1. Does light slow down or speed up when it passes from the air into the cornea? (Hint : Refer to page 156.) 2. Why does the lens need to be thicker for viewing nearby objects?

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Improving your image

The eye is truly an amazing optical system: it is able to focus on objects only centimetres away as well as distant objects many kilometres away. However, the ability to obtain sharp images varies from person to person. The most common reasons for being unable to obtain sharp images are short-sightedness and long-sightedness. Both of these conditions can be corrected by wearing glasses or contact lenses.
light from a distant object blurry image

Myopia (short-sightedness)
A person who is short-sighted is able to focus clearly on nearby objects but is unable to obtain a sharp image of distant objects. Reading the blackboard or whiteboard from the back of the classroom might be difcult for a short-sighted person. However, reading the print on this page as you are now would not be a problem. The blurring of the images of distant objects occurs because the light rays coming from them are bent so much that the image forms in front of the retina. The combined focusing power of the cornea and lens is too strong for the length of the eye. Myopia can be corrected with glasses with diverging lenses. The diverging lenses used in glasses are called convexo-concave lenses. The concave side is more curved than the convex side, so it diverges parallel rays of light. With correctly prescribed glasses, images of distant objects form on the retina instead of in front of it.

light from a distant object convexo-concave lens

sharp image on retina

Myopia (short-sightedness): The image of distant objects is blurry because the focusing power of the cornealens system is too strong for the length of the eye. The light rays coming from distant objects converge in front of the retina. This problem can be corrected by a diverging lens.

light from nearby object

blurry image

light from nearby object

sharp image on retina

Hyperopia (long-sightedness)
A person who is long-sighted is able to focus clearly on distant objects but is unable to obtain a sharp image of nearby objects. Reading the print on this page might be difcult for a long-sighted person. However, reading road signs in the distance would not be a problem. Difculty in seeing the detail of nearby objects occurs because the rays coming from them are not bent enough to form an image on the retina. The combined focusing power of the cornea and lens is too weak for the length of the eye. The ciliary muscles need to work hard to make the lens bulge enough to make up for the lack of normal focusing power. As a result, long-sighted people often suffer from headaches and tired eyes. If the lens cannot bulge enough to bring the rays to a focus, images of the nearby objects are blurred. Hyperopia can be corrected with glasses with converging lenses. The converging lenses used in glasses are called concavoconvex lenses. The convex side is more curved than the concave side, so it converges parallel rays of light. With correctly prescribed glasses, images of nearby objects form on the retina without eye strain and headaches.

concavo-convex lens
Hyperopia (long-sightedness): The image of nearby objects is blurry because the focusing power of the cornealens system is not strong enough for the length of the eye. The light rays coming from nearby objects converge behind the retina. This problem can be corrected by a converging lens.

Two pairs of glasses in one

The natural decrease in the ability to accommodate by changing the shape of the lens in the eye is described on the previous page. The problems caused by this natural decrease, called presbyopia, can be solved by wearing reading glasses with converging lenses. However, many older people have difculty forming clear images of distant objects as

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well. Instead of having to wear one pair of glasses for reading and another pair for the rest of the time, bifocals can be used. The lenses in bifocals are shaped so that they converge light at the bottom to assist close vision when reading, and diverge light at the top to assist distance vision. You can usually tell when people are wearing bifocals because they need to adjust their head position when they read so that they are looking through the bottom part of their glasses.

I S IT CL EAR ?
The astigmatic fan chart on the right can be used to test for astigmatism. Look at the chart from a distance of about 50 cm. If your vision is affected by astigmatism, some of the lines will appear more clearly than others. Test one eye at a time, covering the other eye with your hand.

Astigmatic fan chart

Cataracts
As the lens becomes less exible with age, it can become less transparent. Small cloudy spots, called cataracts, can develop in parts of the lens. Sometimes, they spread through the whole lens causing blurred vision. In severe cases, cataracts cause blindness as the lens becomes completely opaque. Cataracts are usually associated with old age. However, they can also be caused by eye injuries, some drugs and some forms of radiation. Some babies are born with cataracts. When cataracts are serious enough to blur vision, the affected lens is surgically removed. It is replaced with a plastic lens. Unlike the original lens, it has a xed shape and cannot accommodate to focus on both distant and nearby objects. People who have had cataracts removed therefore need glasses or contact lenses to compensate for the lack of accommodation.

Two pairs of glasses in one. Bifocals assist in the vision of both nearby and distant objects.

Astigmatism
Apart from short-sightedness and long-sightedness, the most common eye problem is astigmatism. Astigmatism is a condition where the light coming from one direction is bent more than the light from another direction. It is usually caused by an irregularly shaped cornea or lens. The result is that it is impossible to obtain a sharp image of any object. Astigmatism can be corrected with glasses that have a lens especially shaped to compensate for the irregular shape of the cornea or lens. Hard contact lenses are very useful in correcting astigmatism. They are made of plastic and are shaped to t over the cornea. Soft contact lenses are not as effective in correcting astigmatism because their outside surface takes up a shape similar to the misshapen cornea.

Activities
Remember
1. Which eye condition occurs if the combined focusing power of the cornea and lens is too strong for the length of the eye? 2. Which type of lens would you expect to nd in glasses worn by a person who is long-sighted? 3. What are bifocals and why are they used? (b) A science teacher who has never had eye problems before begins to nd it easier to read books when they are held further away. (c) A retired builder who has always had good eyesight begins to experience blurred vision. It gradually gets worse and affects vision of both nearby and distant objects. (d) A young child cannot see sharp images of nearby or distant objects. (e) A person who has no problem reading a newspaper cant read the numbers on the scoreboard at a football match. 2. Explain why it is impossible for a person who has had cataract surgery to accommodate.

Think
1. Which condition of the eye is most likely to be responsible for each of the following problems? (a) A student who can read the blackboard from the back of the room has to strain to read the print in a textbook and gets headaches while reading magazines at home.

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7.6 A LOOK INSIDE

The baby in the photograph on the right is still inside its mothers womb. It has been photographed through a long, exible tube called an endoscope. Inside the endoscope are two bundles of narrow glass strands called optical bres. The glass in optical bres is made so that light is unable to emerge from the sides of the glass bres. A beam of bright light is directed through one bundle of bres, illuminating the inside of the womb. Some of this light is reected off the womb and travels through the other bundle of bres. A lens at the end of this bundle allows an image of the womb to be viewed, photographed or videotaped. Different types of endoscope include: gastroscopes, which are used to examine the stomach and other parts of the digestive system arthroscopes, which are used to search for problems in joints like shoulders and knees

Optical bres allow us to see inside the human body.

bronchoscopes, which are used to see inside the lungs. Endoscopes can also be used in laser surgery. Intense laser beams can be directed into the optical bres. The heat of the laser beams can be used to seal broken blood vessels or

destroy abnormal tissue inside the body. As light travels from a substance such as glass into air, it bends away from the normal (see page 156). If the light strikes the boundary at a small enough angle, it bends so

An endoscope being used to look inside a patients stomach. This type of endoscope, called a gastroscope, is passed through the mouth of the patient.

A bundle of optical bres. The light can be seen through the ends.

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much that instead of leaving the glass, it is reected back into it. This process is called total internal reection. The diagram below shows how total internal reection occurs in an optical bre.
light beam reflected off sides

Even though the rst successful glass optical bres were not made until 1973, the advantages of optical bres are so great that Australia already has a network of bre cables between all capital cities. Optical bres can be laid under the ground or under water.

7.7 K E EP I NG TH E L I GH T IN SI DE
YOU WILL NEED

ray box with triangular prism power supply sheet of white paper Connect the ray box to the power supply. Place a sheet of white paper on the bench in front of the ray box. Use a black plastic slide to produce a single thin beam of light that is clearly visible on the white paper. Place a perspex triangular prism on the sheet of paper and direct the thin beam of light towards it as shown in the diagram. Observe the beam as it passes through the prism. Turn the prism slightly anticlockwise, closely observing the thin beam as it travels from the perspex back into the air. Continue

to turn the prism until the beam no longer emerges from the perspex. 1. What happens to the beam of light when it no longer emerges from the perspex? 2. Draw a diagram showing how the path of the beam of light changed as you turned the prism.

optical fibre

Total internal reection in an optical bre

Communicating with visible light

Optical bres are used to transmit sound and images over long distances. They are smaller, lighter, more exible and more efcient than the electrical cables previously used for longdistance telephone, radio and TV communication. Electrical signals from a microphone, television camera, computer or fax machine are converted into pulses of light and transmitted along an optical bre. These light pulses are received at the other end of the bre and converted back into electrical signals that can be fed into speakers, a television set, another computer or a fax machine. The signals can also be retransmitted as radio waves if necessary. Because a laser beam does not spread out as it travels through the optical bres, the light can travel long distances through the glass with little energy loss.

Observe the beam as it passes through the prism.

Activities
Remember
1. What is an endoscope? 2. List three uses of endoscopes. 3. How do optical bres allow light to travel along a bent tube?

Think
1. Suggest some other methods of nding out what lies in the wall of a human stomach. What are the advantages of an endoscope over these other methods? 2. Can total internal reection occur when light travels from air into glass? Explain your answer. Use diagrams if necessary.

Investigate
1. Find out how optical bres have replaced other methods of long distance communication.

2. When technology reveals a severe problem in a developing fetus, parents may be given the option of an abortion. This is unacceptable to some groups in our society. (a) List some arguments for and against using abortion as a solution. (b) Why do some groups have different views on abortion? (c) Should we use technology to examine a developing fetus? Explain. (d) What ethical considerations need to be taken into account when using technology that has been developed from new scientic knowledge?

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7.7 7.7

Colour your world

Imagine how dull life would be without colour. Not only does colour make the world more interesting, but it can even affect our moods or can it? Think about why interior designers choose different colours for different rooms, why some people choose to wear brightly coloured clothes, and why food colouring is added to foods that are already coloured. It was Sir Isaac Newton, in 1666, who discovered that white light consisted of different colours. This set of colours is called the visible spectrum. The colours of the visible spectrum are usually described as red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. However, there is no sharp boundary between these colours. They merge into each other

Imagine a world without colour.

because there are very slight differences in the amount of bending of the colours as they refract. If white light can be bent enough, as it is when it passes in and out of a triangular prism, the

differences in the amount of bending can be observed and the visible spectrum is produced. The separation of white light into its colours as a result of bending is called dispersion.

7.8
YOU WILL NEED

W H AT S I N WH IT E LI GH T ?
Use the piece of white paper as a screen to display the beam after it passes through the prism. Move the prism until a band of colour is produced. 2. Which colour is bent the most and which is bent the least by the prism? 3. Suggest how the glass in the prism managed to separate the colours. Use a second prism to try to merge the colours into a white light on the screen. 4. Draw a diagram to show how a second prism can be used to merge the colours separated by the rst prism.
triangular prism

slide projector 2 triangular glass prisms sheet of white paper (A4 will do) ray box power supply Place a triangular glass prism in front of the beam of the slide projector. The prism needs to be about 10 cm in front of the projector. Use the sheet of white paper as a screen just behind the prism and move the prism around until you can see a band of different colours on the screen. Once you have found the band, move the screen away from the prism and try to project it onto a wall. 1. What colours could you see when the white light was separated into different colours by the prism? Connect a ray box to the power supply. Place a triangular prism on the bench in front of the ray box as shown in the diagram. Project a single thin beam of light towards the triangular prism.

ray box

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Why is the sky blue?

White light is actually made up of six different colours of light, each with its own frequency. When light from the sun hits molecules in the air, it gets scattered in all directions. Blue light has the highest frequency and is scattered throughout the sky ten times as strongly as red light. When you look up at the sky, you see blue because more of the high frequency blue scattered light is reaching your eye.

Activities
Remember
1. List the six commonly known colours of the spectrum from the colour that bends most in glass to the one that bends least. 2. Explain why the sky is normally blue. 3. Why does the sun appear to be redder when it is rising and setting than during the middle of the day?

Seeing red
When the sun is low in the sky, it appears to be very red. The path of the sunlight through the atmosphere is much longer at sunrise and sunset because the sunlight passes through more air. By the time the light reaches the lower atmosphere, the colours at the blue end of the spectrum have been scattered away even more than usual. Clouds take on an orange-red colour as the other colours of the spectrum have been scattered higher in the atmosphere. When the atmosphere also contains dust particles this also creates spectacular sunrises and sunsets. CAUTION: Never look directly at the sun!

Think
1. How do you know that white light consists of different colours? 2. Which colour of light slows down more when it moves from air into glass, red or blue? Explain how you decided on your answer. 3. Colours can be separated by both dispersion and scattering. Explain the difference between dispersion and scattering.

atmosphere sun at sunset more blue light scattered by atmosphere

sun overhead

observer sun at sunrise more blue light scattered by atmosphere

Imagine
Imagine what life would be like if you could see things only in black and white. Think carefully about how that would affect you. Write a short science ction story or play about a day on Earth when all humans had their colour vision destroyed by a strange type of radiation from outer space.

Earth

The path of sunlight through the atmosphere is much longer at sunrise and sunset.

Investigate
Seeing red at sunset

1. Try shining a torch through a glass of water with a few drops of milk added. Look through the glass from the side, perpendicular to the beam of light. 2. Find out how a rainbow is formed and why it is curved. 3. Design an investigation to nd out whether colour affects mood. 4. Design an experiment to nd out if red is the best colour to represent stop in trafc lights.

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7.8 7.8

Seeing in colour
Although the light coming from the sun and most electric lighting is white, your surroundings are full of colour. White light consists of all the colours of the visible spectrum. The colour of the non-luminous objects that you see depends on which parts of the spectrum are reected towards your eyes. When white light falls on any surface, some colours are reected while others are absorbed. A red surface absorbs all of the colours of the spectrum except red. Only red light is reected. A green substance absorbs all of the colours except green, and a blue substance absorbs all of the colours except blue.

Whats so special about red, green and blue?

Red, green and blue light can be combined to produce white light. Different combinations of these three colours can also be used to produce all other colours. For this reason they are known as primary colours. Colours made by mixing primary colours are called secondary colours. The coloured images that you see on TV or computer screens are produced by hundreds of thousands of narrow red, green and blue beams. The strength of each of the beams is controlled by the television or video signal to produce a wide range of colours.
cyan yellow white magenta

Blue, green and red light can be combined to produce white light.

7.9
YOU WILL NEED

A D D IN G COL O URS
Adding colours Colours combined red + green + blue red + green red + blue green + blue yellow + magenta + cyan
filters mirror

ray box power supply red, green, blue, yellow, magenta and cyan lters white surface to use as a screen Connect the ray box to the power supply and darken the room. Use the ray box and the coloured lters as shown in the diagram below right to project the combinations of colours in the table onto the white screen. Observe and record the colour produced on the screen by each combination. When only two colours are combined, one of the side mirrors can be closed. 1. Which combinations of coloured light produced white light on the screen? 2. What colour would you expect to see on the screen if you combined: (a) magenta light with green light? (b) yellow light with blue light? Give reasons for your answers and then use the equipment to see if you were correct.

Colour observed on screen

ray box mirror

Move the mirrors to project different colours onto the same part of the screen.

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Colour in print
The print and colour photographs in this book consist of thousands of tiny yellow, magenta, cyan and black dots made of pigments. The dots are so close together your eyes and brain are not able to see them separately. Instead, you see the combined effect. The black dots add sharpness to the image. Pigment colours work by absorbing light. Magenta pigments absorb green light and reect a mixture of blue and red light. Yellow pigments absorb blue light and reect a mixture of red and green light. Cyan pigments absorb red light and reect a mixture of blue and green light. By varying the number of dots, all colours can be produced. The light reected from this book, therefore, consists of yellow, magenta and cyan. The photograph below shows how the colour photograph on page 164 was created colour by colour. It also shows a magnied view of a small area of the photograph.

Subtracting

colours
The lters used in the experiment on page 168 absorb all of the colours in the spectrum except the individual lters colour. In other words, they subtract colours from white light. A red lter absorbs all of the colours except red. When you hold a red lter in front of you it appears red because only red light passes through it. A magenta lter allows both red and blue light to pass through, allowing you to see the colour magenta when you hold the lter up to the light.

Yellow plate

Yellow and magenta plates Magnified area 5

Yellow, magenta and cyan plates Most colour photographs in books are printed separately in four different colours.

Yellow, magenta, cyan and black plates

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7.10
YOU WILL NEED

S UB T R A CT I NG CO LOU RS WI T H F I LT E RS
Project a beam towards the screen and place the magenta lter in the ray box. Predict the colour that you would expect to observe on the screen if you place a red lter in front of the magenta lter. Test your prediction and record the colour observed in the table. Replace the red lter with a green lter and again predict and observe the colour seen on the screen. Replace the green lter with a blue lter and yet again predict and observe the colour seen on the screen. Remove the blue lter and place both the cyan and yellow lters directly in front of the magenta lter. Make and record your prediction about what you will observe on the screen before you make your observation. Use the lters that you have available to complete the table. Add lines to the table if you would like to test other combinations. 1. Which primary colours (red, green or blue) are transmitted by: (a) the magenta lter? (b) the cyan lter? (c) the yellow lter? 2. Which primary colour is subtracted by: (a) the magenta lter? (b) the cyan lter? (c) the yellow lter? 3. What colour was produced when the magenta, cyan and yellow lters were all placed in front of the white beam?

ray box power supply red, green, blue, yellow, magenta and cyan lters white surface to use as a screen Make a copy of the table below in which you can record your predictions and observations. Connect the ray box to the power supply and darken the room. Subtracting colours with lters Filter in ray box magenta Filter placed in front red green blue cyan and yellow cyan red green blue yellow red green blue

Predicted colour on screen

Observed colour on screen

Paints and dyes

The colours used in mixing paints and dyes are yellow, magenta and cyan. These colours can be mixed in different proportions to produce a wide range of colours. Adding colours with paints and dyes is very different from adding coloured light beams. Paints and dyes are made to subtract colours. For example, green paint is made by mixing yellow paint with cyan paint. The yellow paint absorbs (or subtracts) blue light. It looks yellow because red and green light are reected from it. The cyan paint absorbs (or subtracts) red light. Its cyan colour is the result of reected green and blue light. The diagram below
white light

shows that the light reected from the mixture of yellow and cyan paint is mostly green.
white light

white light

yellow paint blue light absorbed

cyan paint red light absorbed

green paint some blue and red light absorbed

Green paint is a mixture of yellow and cyan paint.

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Colour in the eye of the beholder

The retina contains two different types of receptor cell. These receptor cells, called rods and cones, respond to light by sending small electrical signals to the brain, which then interprets the image that you see. The retina contains about 100 million rod cells and about six million cone cells.

Activities
Remember
1. Why does a red surface look red when white light is falling on it? 2. Why are red, green and blue called primary colours? 3. Yellow, cyan and magenta are referred to as secondary colours because they can be made by adding pairs of primary colours together. Yet in printing, paints and dyes, the primary colours are referred to as yellow, cyan and magenta. Why are these three colours listed as primary colours? 4. What happens to white light as it passes through a red lter? 5. What happens to white light as it passes through a magenta lter? 6. Which living cells in the retina enable you to detect colour? 7. Which three primary colours can be detected by your eye? 8. Why is it so difcult to identify a car by its colour at night?

nerve bres ganglion cell layer

bipolar layer

rod receptor layer cone pigment cell layer

The receptor cells in the retina respond to brightness and colour.

Think
1. Which two primary colours pass through a yellow lter? 2. What colour would a bright red shirt appear to be under: (a) red lights? (b) blue lights? (c) yellow lights? Explain how you obtained each of your answers. 3. Explain in your own words how a blue shirt is seen to be blue in sunlight. 4. Compare the way that colour images are produced by colour television and colour printing?

The rods contain a single pigment which detects the brightness of the light falling on the retina. The rods are unable to detect colour. There are three types of cone cell. Each type contains a different coloured pigment which corresponds to one of the primary colours: red, green and blue. The huge range of colours that you see are all combinations of different proportions of these three primary colours. The cone cells are most closely packed in the centre of the retina. This is where the image of what you are focusing on is formed. The cone cells are spread more thinly in other parts of the retina, so it is harder to distinguish the colour of objects in your peripheral (side) vision. The cone cells are more sensitive than rod cells in bright light. Because of this, it is more difcult to distinguish between colours in dim light.

Create
Create a colour wheel with a disc of cardboard. Colour one third of the cardboard red, another third green and the nal third blue. Make a hole in the centre of the cardboard disc so that a pencil can be inserted through it. The pencil needs to t tightly enough so that the wheel spins when you spin the pencil. What colour do you see when the disc is spun quickly?

Colour confusion
Most colour-blind people are unable to distinguish between red and green because of abnormalities in the red and green pigments in the cones. Almost all colour-blindness is inherited and cannot be cured. About eight per cent of men are colour blind, while only 0.5 per cent of women are colour blind.

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7.9 7.9

Light history
Aristotle (b. 384 Macedonia d. 322 BC Greece)

Sir Isaac Newton (b. 1642 England d. 1727 England)

Evangelista Torricelli (b. 1608 Italy d. 1647 Italy)

Christiaan Huygens (b. 1629 Holland d. 1695 Holland)

Thomas Young (b. 1773 England d. 1829 England)

James Clerk Maxwell (b. 1831 Scotland d. 1879 England)

Light and its behaviour have always fascinated scientists. The ancient Greeks understood that light could be refracted and reected. Aristotle thought that both light and sound moved about in waves, very much like the waves in the sea. He believed that there had to be air present for light or sound to travel. He thought that if scientists could make a perfect vacuum, it could be proved that light and sound waves were not able to travel through a vacuum. He also thought that it would be impossible to create a vacuum. By the 17th century, many observations of light had been made, but no one theory explained why light travelled in straight lines, cast shadows or why it split into different colours when it travelled through a prism. Around 1670 two famous scientists put forward two very different theories that set the scientic community debating, discussing and experimenting for the next 200 years. One of these scientists was Sir Isaac Newton. Using the work of Evangelista Torricelli, who succeeded in creating a vacuum, Newton found that light did shine through a vacuum. He now knew that Aristotle had been wrong on this point. Newton claimed that light was made up of particles he called corpuscles. This theory became known as the particle theory of light. Newton used his particle theory to explain why light reected. His logic was that when these corpuscles hit a surface, they simply bounced off like a tennis ball. He also explained refraction by saying that the corpuscles travelled faster or slower through glass, air or water. The other scientist with a theory on light was Christiaan Huygens. He suggested that light did indeed travel in waves. His theory was called the wave theory of light. Like Aristotle, Huygens believed light travelled like waves rippling on a pond. He was able to explain the spectrum of light through a prism by saying that each colour had a different wavelength. The amount of bending depended on the wavelength of the light. Those parts of light with the shortest wavelength were bent, or refracted, the most. The two theories presented the scientic community with a dilemma. Huygens wave theory explained the visible spectrum, but not reection or why light cast shadows. Another part of the dilemma was that waves usually need some material to move across, but the light that reaches Earth comes though space, where there is nothing for the waves to move in. For a very long time, Newtons particle theory was the most popular explanation of this scientic mystery. In 1801 Thomas Young, a doctor who had been studying the eye, made a breakthrough. He had become fascinated by the fact that the eye could create all colours just by recognising three colours red, blue and green. This work led him to perform what is now known as Youngs double-slit experiment. This proved that light was in fact made up of waves by showing interference patterns. His discovery upset many scientists, as they were not willing to accept that Newton had been wrong. Now the remaining problem was explaining how light travelled through empty space. To solve this, scientists came up with the idea of a special material called luminiferous (light-producing) material, in which the waves travelled. The next major breakthrough occurred in the 1860s when James Clerk Maxwell connected light, electricity and magnetism. He said that light was a wave in which energy was carried from a source by electric and magnetic elds. This type of wave could travel through a vacuum. He used mathematical calculations to support his theory. He determined that light was just a small part of a wide range

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Edward Morley (b. 1838 United States d. 1923 United States)

Albert Michelson (b. 1852 Prussia d. 1931 United States)

Max Planck (b. 1858 Germany d. 1947 West Germany)

Albert Einstein (b. 1879 Germany d. 1955 United States)

Philipp Lenard (b. 1862 Hungary d. 1947 West Germany)

of electromagnetic waves, which we know today as the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum ranges from gamma rays to radio waves. Towards the end of the 19th century, most scientists were convinced that light was a wave. However, doubts started to creep in when, in 1887, Edward Morley and Albert Michelson proved that there was no such thing as luminiferous ether. In 1900, while studying heat, Max Planck determined that like heat, light was a form of electromagnetic radiation that travelled in packets that he called quanta. He worked this out using a mathematical formula, but even he found the results difcult to believe. It was Albert Einstein who really understood what Plancks results meant. Before Planck, Philipp Lenard had discovered that when light struck certain metals, electrons were emitted. This was called the photoelectric effect. However, it was Einstein who came up with the explanation of these extraordinary results. He said that light could be thought of as little packets of energy called photons, and not as waves. It looked like Newtons theory was in fact correct. However, Einsteins photons were not thought of as little balls and they behaved like waves. Einstein said that light was in fact both a particle and a wave. This theory is still accepted today. It is this dual nature of light that makes it one of the most interesting mysteries of the universe. Einstein also worked out that nothing travels faster than light. In his famous theory of relativity where E = mc2, c is the speed of light. There is, of course, more of this story yet to be discovered . . .

Activities
The measurement standard for the metre is dened as the distance light travels through a vacuum in second. Using a stabilised iodine laser as the source of light, scientists all over the world can reproduce their own accurate standard of length because light in a vacuum travels at the same speed everywhere.
1 ------------------------------299 792 458

Remember
1. Who rst thought light energy was a wave? 2. Explain the difference between the wave theory of light and the particle theory of light. 3. Who nally solved the problem of whether light was a wave or a particle? Explain the solution. 4. Why were scientists upset by Thomas Youngs discovery?

of a

Investigate
Arab scholars such as Alhazen (c. 9651038) knew enough about the refraction of light to develop lenses for spectacles. Then in 1666 Sir Isaac Newton discovered that a prism placed in a beam of light split the light into different colours and that a second prism could recombine the colours. These colours were known as the light spectrum. There were only six colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. But because seven was considered a lucky number at the time, violet was split into indigo and violet.
1. Find out more about the life of one scientist mentioned in this section. 2. What is the difference between a law and a theory? List the laws related to light that you understand.

Imagine
Imagine you were a scientist working on light in the 19th century. Make a list of the problems you might have in developing your theories and communicating with other scientists.

KEEPING AN EYE ON LIGHT

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Putting it all together

Summing up
Copy and complete the statements below to compile a summary of this unit. The missing words can be found in the word list below. 1. You can see beams of light only when particles in substances like air some of the light towards your eyes. 2. When light meets a boundary between two different substances, it can be reected, or transmitted. 3. Everything that you see is an . 10. If the combined focusing of the lens and cornea is too weak for the length of the eye, images of nearby objects become blurry. This condition is commonly known as . 11. Endoscopes, which include bundles of , can be used to look inside the human body. 12. The total reection of light when it travels from glass into air is called total reection. 13. The separation of white light into its colours, called , occurs because different colours of light are bent by different amounts as they refract. 14. Red, green and blue light can be combined together to produce light. 15. The colours yellow, and cyan are used in , paints and dyes because they can be combined in different proportions to produce a wide range of colours, including white. 16. The receptor cells on the retina detect the brightness and colour of light. It is the cells that respond to colour.

4. When light travels from one substance into another, it changes and, unless it crossed the boundary at right angles, changes as well. This process is called . 5. When light travels from water into the air, it bends from the normal. 6. A lens is curved outwards on both sides. It converges light towards a point called a . 7. A lens spreads light out.

8. The action of the lens in obtaining a sharp image on the retina is called . 9. Most of the bending of light done by the human eye occurs at the .

Word list
magenta cone focus away internal printing optical absorbed power scatter diverging speed image refraction cornea biconvex dispersion direction accommodation long-sightedness white bres

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Looking back
1. Thin beams of light are projected from a ray box towards four objects. Each object is hidden from view by a tile. The beams emerging from each of the objects are shown in the diagrams below. Name or describe the object behind each tile.

tile A ray box ray box

tile C

tile B ray box

What is behind each of the tiles?

tile D ray box

2. Explain the difference in the meaning of each of the following pairs of words. (a) ray and beam (b) reection and scattering (c) refraction and dispersion (d) transparent and translucent (e) converging and diverging (f) concave and convex (g) focus and virtual focus (h) gastroscope and arthroscope (i) cones and rods 3. Redraw the diagram of the eye below. Complete all the labelling and state the main function of each labelled part of the eye.
ciliary muscle

5. The diagram below shows how rays from a distant object arrive at the retina of a person with blurry distance vision.

light from a distant object

blurry image

How can this problem be corrected with a lens?

pupil

optic nerve

to brain

4. Explain how the eye detects colour and why some people are colour blind.

(a) What is the name of the condition illustrated above? (b) What does the correcting lens need to do to the incoming light in order to correct the problem? (c) Draw a diagram to show how an appropriate lens placed in front of the eye shown above changes the path of light so that a clear image of a distant object falls on the retina. 6. Using diagrams where appropriate, explain: (a) why your legs look short when you stand in clear water (b) why the sky is blue (c) why the coloured photographs in most books contain only dots of four different colours.

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In the dark

Extension
Slip on a shirt, slop on some sunscreen and slap on a hat! Protect yourself from that invisible ultraviolet radiation that causes sunburn and skin cancer. However, a shirt, sunscreen and a hat are not enough! Ultraviolet radiation can threaten your sight as well as your skin. A good pair of sunglasses can protect your eyes from the hidden dangers of ultraviolet radiation. The depletion of the ozone layer high in the atmosphere increases the risk of damage by ultraviolet radiation. Your cornea, lens and retina can all be damaged by too much exposure to ultraviolet radiation. The eyelids and surrounding skin can become burnt, increasing the risk of developing skin cancer and cancer of the eyelids. The cornea can become inamed and burnt. A sunburnt cornea (known as photokeratitis) is very painful and especially common when sunlight is reected from snow. Repeated or extended exposure can kill cells in the cornea, reducing the amount of light that can get through. The ultraviolet light absorbed by the lens can cause cataracts, which can eventually result in the need for surgical removal of the lens. The cells on the retina can be severely damaged by the small amount of ultraviolet radiation that is not absorbed by the cornea and lens. This type of damage is the most common cause of blindness in older adults.

Fun in the sun

Dangerous times
The dangers of ultraviolet radiation are greatest between 10 am and 2 pm (11 am and 3 pm when daylight-saving is in operation), at higher altitudes and when sunlight is reected from sand or snow.

Activities
Remember
1. List the different forms of damage that can be done to the eyes by ultraviolet radiation. 2. At what time of day is ultraviolet radiation most dangerous? 3. Explain why a poor pair of sunglasses can be more dangerous than no sunglasses at all.

Polarised lenses
Sunglasses with labels that indicate that they have polarised lenses offer no more protection from ultraviolet radiation than other sunglasses. Polarised lenses have a layer that reduces the glare caused by the reection of light from smooth surfaces like snow, sand and water.

Think
List, in order of importance, the features that you consider when choosing a pair of sunglasses. Compare your list with those of others in your class.

Mirrored sunglasses
Sunglasses that reect the most visible light have lenses with thin metallic coatings on the surface. The fact that they reect visible light doesnt guarantee they will reect ultraviolet radiation.

Create
Draw a poster that warns people about the need for effectively protecting the eyes from the sun.

Investigate
Conduct a survey to nd out whether paying more for sunglasses means better protection from ultraviolet radiation.

Choosing the right pair

Because of the dangers of ultraviolet radiation, you should choose sunglasses carefully. You should check the label to ensure that they absorb at least 99 per cent of ultraviolet radiation. Sunglasses that block a lot of visible light without absorbing ultraviolet radiation can be more dangerous than no sunglasses at all. The lack of visible light causes the pupil to open more. This allows even more ultraviolet radiation to enter your lens and fall on the retina than would normally be the case.

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Reflection
1. Tell a story
Choose one of the following topics and write a creative story describing the process. Your story can be funny, but the science needs to be correct. Write your story from the point of view of a cell, a part of the body, a ray of light or an object. (a) an endoscope examination (of any type) (b) an eye examination (c) a telephone message sent through optical bres (d) an eye sending messages about colours to the brain (e) a crystal hanging in a sunbeam.

5. Eye problems
In a group of three or four, each person should choose a different eye disease or eyesight problem and research it. Take turns in explaining the symptoms of your diseases and how they are cured or treated. Use diagrams where possible. When you have nished, tell each other why you chose that particular disease. Include stories of any personal examples that you know about.
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6. Catching the image

You use a camera to record images that you want to see again in the future. A camera works like your eye. (a) Examine a camera and see how it works. Can you name the main parts of the camera? (Hint: The cameras instruction booklet could be useful.) (b) Compare the camera with your eye. Draw a diagram of both to explain the similarities and differences.

2. Colour my world
Think about what you now know about colour. Choose one of the following questions, and use diagrams and words to show what you know. (a) How is colour produced? (b) At a recent dance you noticed your clothing changed colour at certain times. Explain how this could happen. (c) How do printers use colour science to produce a full-colour product?
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7. Blind spot
Everyone has a blind spot and its good to be aware that you have one. When learning to drive, one important lesson is to learn how to compensate for your blind spot.

3. Optical illusions
Illusions happen when your eye interprets an image differently from fact, or when it sees something that is not present. Some examples are: the position of a sh under water the appearance of water on a road in hot weather sailors seeing islands on the horizon pictures that contain two images. Think of an optical illusion that you have experienced and use the knowledge you now have about light to explain why it happened.

F I ND YOU R BL I ND S P OT

Can you see two angry faces or a candle?

Close your left eye and focus on the koala with your right eye. Move the book back and forth until the kangaroo disappears. When it does you have found your blind spot. 1. Think about the structure of your eye and suggest why we each have a blind spot. How do your eyes compensate for your blind spot? 2. When driving a car, what is meant by your blind spot? How would you compensate for this blind spot to ensure you are a safe driver?

4. Seeing is believing
Imagine you are a ray of light entering an eye. Describe your journey through the eye to the brain. What could happen on this journey to make the image the brain sees look fuzzy?

KEEPING AN EYE ON LIGHT

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