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    Light Notes

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    Godfrey Okoth
    Light is a form of energy that enables vision and consists of photons. It can travel through a vacuum at about 300 million m/s. There are natural sources like the sun and stars, and man-made sources like light bulbs. Objects are luminous if they produce their own light and non-luminous if they do not. Materials can be transparent, translucent, or opaque depending on how much light they transmit.

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    Light Notes

    Uploaded by

    Godfrey Okoth
    21 views11 pages
    Light is a form of energy that enables vision and consists of photons. It can travel through a vacuum at about 300 million m/s. There are natural sources like the sun and stars, and man-made sources like light bulbs. Objects are luminous if they produce their own light and non-luminous if they do not. Materials can be transparent, translucent, or opaque depending on how much light they transmit.

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    Light

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    Light is a form of energy that enables vision and consists of photons. It can travel through a vacuum at about 300 million m/s. There are natural sources like the sun and stars, and man-made sources like light bulbs. Objects are luminous if they produce their own light and non-luminous if they do not. Materials can be transparent, translucent, or opaque depending on how much light they transmit.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    21 views11 pages

    Light Notes

    Uploaded by

    Godfrey Okoth
    Light is a form of energy that enables vision and consists of photons. It can travel through a vacuum at about 300 million m/s. There are natural sources like the sun and stars, and man-made sources like light bulbs. Objects are luminous if they produce their own light and non-luminous if they do not. Materials can be transparent, translucent, or opaque depending on how much light they transmit.

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    Light

    Nature of light
    • Light is a form of energy that enables us to see our surroundings.
    Light is made of photons which is the smallest unit of the visible light
    spectrum.
    • The visible light spectrum is a small part of the electromagnetic
    radiation that the human eye can view. In simple words, visible light is
    a mixture of all 7 colors of the rainbow.
    • Unlike sound waves, light waves can travel through a vacuum (empty
    space). They do not need a substance to travel through, but they can
    travel through transparent and translucent substances.
    • Light travels extremely quickly. Its maximum speed is approximately
    300,000,000 m/s, when it travels through a vacuum.
    Sources of light
    • A light source is an object that emits its own light. Hot objects such as
    flames and the Sun are light sources.
    • A torch bulb has a hot fi lament, so it is also a light source. Some light
    sources are not hot – for example, a computer screen.

    Quiz 1:
    1. Give four examples of objects that are light sources
    Natural and Man-Made Source of Light
    • There are two sources of light;
    1. natural sources of light
    2. man-made sources of light
    • Natural lights are given off by nature. For
    example, the sun, stars, fireflies, lightning, etc.
    • Man-made lights are artificially made. For
    example, bulbs, candles, flashlights, table
    lamps, television, etc.
    • NB
    If the object gets hot when emitting light they are
    called hot sources of light. It is also known as
    incandescence. For example, the sun, a burning
    lamp, an electric bulb, etc.
    If the object doesn’t get hot when producing light it
    is known as a cold source of light. It is also called
    luminescence. For example, fireflies, LEDs, and
    some algae.
    Luminous and non-luminous
    • Sources of light can be classified as either luminous or non-luminous
    sources.
    • Luminous sources are objects that emit their light and are capable of
    reflecting light to our eyes. For example, the sun, stars, and electric
    lights are all luminous objects.
    • Non-luminous sources are objects that cannot emit light by
    themselves. For example, the moon, paper, toys, cars, books, etc.
    How we see objects
    • We can see objects because light travels from them into our eyes.
    Luminous objects make their own light, e.g. the Sun, a light bulb and
    a candle. Most of the objects do not make their own light. We can see
    them because they reflect light to our eyes.
    Transmission of light
    • Transmission of light is the moving of electromagnetic waves through
    a material.
    • This transmission can be reduced, or stopped, when light is reflected
    off the surface or absorbed by the molecules in the material.
    • Based on transmission of light, materials can be classified into:
    1. Transparent
    2. Translucent
    3. Opaque
    Transparent material
    • A material that allows light to pass through and
    we can see through it is called a transparent
    material.
    • Since a transparent material doesn’t block the
    light, there is no shadow formation.
    • Sometimes a transparent material is referred as
    see-through material. For example clear glass
    windowpane, water, clean air, lenses, clear
    plastics, prism, diamond, etc.
    Translucent material
    • A material that allows light to pass through
    partially but we cannot see through it clearly is
    called a translucent material.
    • Since a translucent material doesn’t block the
    light completely, there are faint shadow forms.
    • Sometimes a translucent material is referred as
    a partially see-through material. For example,
    frosted glass, butter paper, tinted glass, wax
    paper, vegetable oil etc.
    Opaque material
    • A material that does not allow light to pass
    through it and we cannot see through it is
    called an opaque material.
    • Since an opaque material completely block
    the light, there are dark shadow forms
    behind the object. For example, wooden
    doors, stone, metals, concrete, etc.

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