KS3 Physics

8K Light
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Contents

8K Light
What is light?
Reflection
Refraction
Colour
Summary activities
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What is light?
Light carries energy
and travels as a wave.
Light travels at a speed
of 300,000,000 metres
per second, which is
much faster than the
speed of sound.
Light waves travel in
straight lines.

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Investigating light
1. Investigate how light travels
using a glass trough filled
with smoke. Use a slit to
send rays of light into the tank
and describe what you see.
Light waves travel in straight lines.
2. Investigate which materials
let light through by holding
different materials between
a lamp and a screen.
Transparent material lets almost all the light pass through.
Translucent material only allows some of the light through.
Opaque material does not allow light to pass through.
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Which materials let light through?

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How do we see things?

An object that gives out light
is described as luminous.
How does light from a
luminous object such as a
light bulb reach the eye?

Light travels in a
straight line directly
into the eye.

An object that does not give

out light is non-luminous.
How does your eye see a
non-luminous object such
as a book?
Light from the light source hits
the book and some of this light
is reflected into the eye.
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Contents

8K Light
What is light?
Reflection
Refraction
Colour
Summary activities
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Reflective materials
Objects that reflect light well:
Have smooth, shiny surfaces
and are usually pale colours.
Give clear images because
they reflect light regularly.
Objects that do not reflect light well:
Have rough, matt surfaces
and are usually dark colours.
Give diffuse images (or
do not give any images)
because they reflect light
irregularly.
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Reading in mirrors instructions

Working in pairs, one person is the timer and the other
person is the reader.
The reader turns their back and has to read a list of words
using a mirror. They must read each word correctly before
moving on to the next word. [
]
The timer measures the time taken and the results for the
whole class are recorded in a table like this:

1. Who read the words in the quickest time?

2. Plot a bar chart of the results.
3. What was the average time taken in the class?
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What is lateral inversion?

A plane mirror reflects light
regularly so it produces a
clear image, which is the
same size as the object.
The image appears the
same distance behind the
mirror as the object is in
front of it.
What is different about the
image compared to the object?
When an object is reflected in a plane mirror, left appears
as right and right appears as left. This type of reversal is
called lateral inversion.
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Reflection investigation
1. Fix a plane mirror to a piece of
paper and draw around it.
2. Draw a normal (at 90) through
the centre of the mirror outline.
3. Use a ray box to shine an
incident ray at the mirror plot
the incident and reflected rays.

angle i
angle r

4. Measure the angles of

incidence [i] and reflection [r]
and record the results.
5. Repeat for another four angles
of incidence.
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6. What do the results show?

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Reflection ray diagram

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Using reflection
Reflection can be very useful.
High-visibility strips are very
reflective and make sure that
this cyclist gets noticed when
there is little light.
How does a periscope use
reflection?
The two plane mirrors must be
positioned at 45 to each other.
Light is reflected at right angles
from the top mirror onto the
bottom mirror and into the eye
of the viewer.
Where are periscopes used?
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Reflection summary

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Reflection true or false?

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Contents

8K Light
What is light?
Reflection
Refraction
Colour
Summary activities
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Refraction at the air-glass boundary

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Refraction investigation
1. Place a rectangular glass
block on a sheet of paper
and draw around it.
2. Draw a normal at 90 to the
top surface of the block.

angle i
angle r

3. Shine light rays, with angles

of incidence [i] of 30, 60 and
0, into the block at the point
where the normal meets the
glass surface. Record the
angle of refraction [r].
4. Repeat the investigation for
rays leaving the glass block.
5. What do the results show?
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Refraction in a glass block

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Why is light refracted?

The speed of light depends on the material through which
the light is travelling.
When light enters a different material (e.g. from air into glass),
the speed of light changes.
This causes the light to bend or refract.
air
glass
The speed of light is affected by the density of the material
through which it is travelling.
When light enters a more dense medium (from air into
its speed decreases and this is why refraction occurs.
glass),
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Refraction ray diagram

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What happens during refraction?

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Effects of refraction
Refraction causes visual effects such as
this ruler appearing to be bent.
This happens because light from the part
of the ruler in the water is refracted as it
travels from the water into the air.
How does refraction make this stone look closer to the
surface of the water than it really is?
image

actual location
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Light rays from the stone are

refracted as they leave the water.
The brain assumes that these
rays have travelled in straight
lines and is fooled into forming
an image where it thinks the
light rays came from.
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Effects of refraction the Archer fish

The Archer fish is a predator that shoots jets of water at
insects near the surface of the water, e.g. on a leaf.
The Archer fish allows
for the refraction of light
at the surface of the
water when aiming at its
prey.
The fish does not aim at
the refracted image it sees
but at a location where it
knows the prey to be.

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image
of prey

prey
location

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Refraction summary

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Refraction true or false?

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Contents

8K Light
What is light?
Reflection
Refraction
Colour
Summary activities
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Passing white light through a prism

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Splitting white light

A prism splits a ray of white
light into the colours of the
rainbow.
This process is known as
dispersion.
The colours that make up
white light are called the
spectrum. The order of the
colours in the spectrum is
always the same.
Use this phrase to remember the order of colours:

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain

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Colours of the spectrum

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Recombining colours

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Newtons disc animation

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Mixing coloured light

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Primary and secondary colours

The three primary colours of light (red, green and blue)
can be mixed in different amounts to make all other colours.

blue
magenta

red

green

The colours made by mixing two primary colours are called

the secondary colours magenta, yellow and cyan.
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Which primary colours?

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How do we see different colours?

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Seeing different colours

How do we see the different colours in this frogs skin?
This skin absorbs
all colours except
red and so is seen
as red.

This skin absorbs

all colours.
No colours are
reflected and so it
appears black.

How do we see the different colours in this flower?

This part absorbs
This part absorbs
all colours except
no colours.
red and green.
It reflects all the
It reflects red and
colours and so
green light, and so
appears white.
appears yellow.
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Using filters of primary colours

A filter absorbs some colours of white light and lets other
colours through to create coloured light.
A red filter absorbs
all colours
apart from red light.
A blue filter absorbs
all colours
apart from blue light.
A green filter absorbs
all colours...
apart from green light.
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Using filters of secondary colours

A magenta filter absorbs
all colours
apart from red and blue.
A cyan filter absorbs
all colours
apart from green and blue.
A yellow filter absorbs
all colours...
apart from red and green.
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Seeing colours in coloured light

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How do we see colours in coloured light?

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Coloured light activity

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What colour does it appear?

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Contents

8K Light
What is light?
Reflection
Refraction
Colour
Summary activities
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Glossary
absorption When light is taken in by a material.
dispersion The separating of the colours in light,

e.g. when white light passes through a prism.

image A copy of an object formed when light is reflected
from a mirror.
light A form of energy that is detected by the eyes.
law of reflection When light is reflected, the angle of
incidence equals the angle of reflection.
prism A block of glass, usually triangular, which separates
the colours in light.
reflection The bouncing back of light from a surface.
refraction The bending of light when it passes into a
different medium, e.g. from air into glass.
spectrum The range of colours that make up white light.
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Anagrams

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Multiple-choice quiz

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