8

Science
Quarter 1 – Module 5:
Colors of Light

After going through this module, you are expected to:

1. Demonstrate the existence of the color components of visible light
using a prism or diffraction grating; (Week 4 S8FE-If-27)
2. Explain hierarchy of colors in relation to energy; and
3. Explain that red is the least bent color and violet the most bent color
according to their wavelengths and frequencies.
 Lesson
Colors of Light
1
Have you ever wondered how a majestic rainbow is formed? Why do we see spectacular
events in the sky like red sunset, blue sky, and rainbows? How is the arrangement of color
determined by nature?
In this lesson, you will try to find through simple activities how light disperse to form the
colors of light.

What’s In
Activity 1
Directions: Draw and color the rainbow on a separate sheet of paper using your coloring
materials based on how well you remember how a rainbow looks like.

(https://pixabay.com/illustrations/mountain-river-landscape-rainbow-3995571/)
 What is It

Color
Were you able to get good sets of data from the activity? Did you enjoy watching how
the rainbow colors appear in the paper? Light is a kind of energy that can travel through space
in a form of wave. Light from the sun or flashlights looks white, but it is really a mixture of many
colors. The colors in white light are red, orange, yellow, green, blue indigo and violet. We
highlight here the arrangement of colors of light as ROYGBIV when dispersion happens.
Dispersion is a kind of refraction which provided us colors of light. This phenomenon is
observed when white light passes through a prism.
A prism is a transparent optical element with flat and polished surfaces that disperses
light. Usually a prism has a triangular base and rectangular sides. Prisms can be made from
any transparent materials like glass, plastic or fluorite. Water in a glass can also acts as prism.
It also breaks white light into constituent colors namely: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo
and violet (ROYGVIB). You can see these colors when you look at a rainbow in our sky. A
rainbow is caused by both the reflection and refraction of light in water droplets on the Earth’s
atmosphere. The water droplets serve as tiny prisms that refract, reflect, and disperse sunlight
into spectrum of light appearing in the sky.

Figure 1. White Light through a Prism

https://pixabay.com/vectors/refraction-prism-optics-150853/

What’s More

Activity 2
Directions: Use crayons or colored pencils to fill in the color spectrum below and label the
dispersed colors on the blank provided. Choose your answers from the words in the box. Write
your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
 Figure 2. Dispersion of White Light

(Illustrated by: Jinemerie C. Atendido)

Blue Red Violet

Green Orange Indigo Yellow

Lesson 2 Hierarchy of Colors

In the previous lesson, we learned about the arrangement of colors of white light. But what
does the arrangement of colors of light exhibit in terms of energy? Which color of light has the
greatest energy? The next activity will provide you with answers to these questions. In this
lesson, you will be able to relate the arrangement of colors and its corresponding energy.

What’s In

Activity 3
Directions: Give what is asked. Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Write the colors of the rainbow that each letter stands for:
R = _____________________________________________
O= _____________________________________________
Y = _____________________________________________
G = _____________________________________________
B = _____________________________________________
 I = ______________________________________________
V = _____________________________________________

2. Use crayons to draw what happens to the beam of light when it passes through the prism.

Figure 3. Dispersion of light

What is It

The frequency of light wave refers to the number of waves that move past a certain point in
one second. Frequency is generally measured in Hertz, the units of cycles per second. Color has
the frequency ranging from 430 trillion Hertz to 750 trillion Hertz. Waves can also go
beyond and below those frequencies, but they are not visible to the human eye.

Wave frequency is related to wave energy. The more energy in the wave, the higher
its frequency. The lower the frequency is, the less energy in the wave. When it comes to
light waves, violet has the highest energy while red has the lowest energy. Related to energy
and frequency is the wavelength, or the distance between corresponding points on subsequent
waves. You can measure wavelength from peak to peak, trough to trough or between two
consecutive corresponding points of waves.

Within the band of visible light, the different wavelengths are perceived by people as
different colors. The shortest wavelength is violet, and the longest wavelength is red.
 Figure 4. Wavelengths of Visible light (nanometers (Illustrated by:
Jinemerie C. Atendido)

What’s More

Activity 4
Directions: Observe the illustration below and answer the questions
by writing Yes if the statement is correct and No if the statement is incorrect. Write your
answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Figure 5. Refraction of Colors

(bulb: https://pixabay.com/vectors/bulb-light-electric-energy-power-307687/)

1. Does white light split into different colors? ______

2. Do all colors of light travel at the same speed in a vacuum? ______
3. Do all colors of light have the same energy? ______
4. Does blue have the shortest wavelength? ______
5. Does red have the longest wavelength? ______

Lesson 3 Bending of Colors

Rainbows are created just like the colors of light appeared in previous activity. A prism
separates the white light into the different colors of light. With the different refractive indices of
the colors of light, bending is also different for each of the colors of light. In this lesson, you will
know which color bend the most and which color bend the least.

What’s In
Activity 5
Directions: Fill in the blanks with the correct answers found in the box below.
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
 Using a 1. _____, you can split up white light to form a spectrum. It is a block of glass
with a triangular cross-section. The light waves are 2. _____ as they enter and leave the prism.
The shorter the wavelength of light, the 3. ____ its frequency and the longer the wavelength,
the 4. _____its frequency. The colors are arranged in the order from longest wavelength: 5.
______, 6. ________, 7. _______, 8. _______, 9. _____ indigo and violet. Thus, when it
comes to light waves, 10. _____has the highest energy color while red has the lowest energy
color.

red prism orange yellow violet refracted

higher lower blue green

What is It

Light exhibits the characteristics of a wave. It moves in its maximum speed in vacuum
but this speed decreases as it moves along different media. Refraction is the bending of light
when it travels from one medium to another. When light crosses the boundary of two media
of different optical density, a change in speed takes place. The optical density is the
measurement of a component’s ability to slow the transmission of light. This change in speed is
manifested by the bending of the light ray. A known indicator of the optical density of a material
is the index of refraction of the material (n). The index of refraction of a material is a quantity
that compares the speed of light in a material to its speed in a vacuum.

Figure 7. Refraction of Light in a Prism

In figure 7, light travels from air to the prism. When the light enters the glass, which is
denser than air, it slows down and is bent. You observe that the angle of incidence ( 1) is
greater than the angle of refraction ( 2). You can see that the light ray refracts or bends towards
the normal. Thus, light bends towards the normal when travelling from a less dense medium to
a higher density medium and light bends away from the normal when travelling from denser to
less dense medium like when light ray leaves the prism.
The incoming ray is called the incident ray from medium 1 and the outgoing ray is the
refracted ray in medium 2, and the associated angles are the angle of incidence and the angle
of refraction.
When white light enters a prism, separation into seven different colors is observed. The
refractive indices of the different colors of light indicate that it travels at different speeds in the
prism which accounts for the different degrees of bending.
In terms of frequency and energy of colors, blue, indigo and violet are the ones with the
highest frequency and energy. These colors are the ones that are bent the most. At the end of
the spectrum, red is the one with the lowest frequency and energy. It is the color that is bent
the least and violet is the most bent.

What’s More

Activity 6
Directions: Observe the illustration and answer the questions after. Write your answers on a
separate sheet of paper.

Figure 8: Bending of white light

(Illustrated by: Jinemerie C. Atendido)

1. Which color has the higher index of refraction (n)? Lower index of refraction (n)?
___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. Based from the illustration, which color is the most bent? Least bent?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

3. What is the relationship between the bending of colors to its index of refraction?
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

What I Can Do

Activity 7
Objective: At the end of the activity, you will be able to give scientific explanations of certain
superstitious beliefs related to observable phenomena in the sky.

Materials: Paper and Pen

Procedure:
You are to give the scientific explanation to clarify the beliefs of the people in your locality on
phenomena.

1. Red sky in the afternoon (Sunset)

___________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
2. Rainbows only appear after the rain
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

3. There’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

Scoring Rubrics
 2: Discussions did not completely show scientific evidence.
1: Discussions did not show complete scientific evidence with misconceptions.
0: There were no discussions shown.

Lesson 1
Activity 2:
1. Red 5. Blue
2. Orange 6. Indigo
3. Yellow 7. Violet
4. Green

Lesson 2
Activity 3
1. R- Red Activity 4:
O- Orange 1. Yes
Y- Yellow 2. Yes
G- Green 3. No
B- Blue 4. No
I- Indigo 5. Yes
V- Violet

Lesson 3
Activity 5:
1. Prism 6. Orange
2. Refracted 7. Yellow
3. Higher 8. Green
4. Lower 9. Blue
5. Red 10. Violet

Activity 6:
1. Higher- violet , Lower- red
2. Most bent- violet, Least bent- red
3. The higher the index of refraction means the greater its bend.
Activity 7: