Science Form 2

Topic 1 – The World Through

Our Senses
Sensory organs and their functions…

Eyes – see (Sight)

Ears – listen
(Hearing)
Nose – smell (Smell)

tongue – taste (Taste)

Skin – touch (Touch)
Sensory organs and their functions…

Eyes
Ears

Skin

Nose Tongue
Sensory organs and their functions…
• Sensory organs are organs that detect stimuli.
• Stimuli (stimulus) are changes in the environment
that cause the body to react.
• Human beings have 5 sensory organs:
- eyes sight
- nose smell
- ears hearing
- tongue taste
- skin touch
• Sense is the ability of a sensory organ to detect
stimuli.
The pathway from stimulus to Response…
• The nervous system detects and responds to stimuli
• An organism receives a stimulus  react to the
stimulus response
• Each sensory organ has receptors that sensitive to
stimuli
(Stimulates) (in sensory organ) (electrical signals)

• Stimulus  receptors  nerve impulses

(Interprets)
 Brain  nerve impulses  nerves  nerve
(muscles & glands) (sense)
impulses  nerves  effectors  response
The sense of Touch…
• Structure of the human skin
The sense of Touch…
• Structure of the human skin
 The sense of Touch…

Sensitivity of the skin

• Sensitivity of the
skin
• The skin on
different parts of
the body has
different degrees Number of receptors present Thickness of the epidermis
of sensitivity.

Receptor number , Thickness of epidermis ,

sensitivity of skin Sensitivity of skin
The sense of Smell…

(Nerve to brain)
The sense of Smell…
The sense of Smell…
• The nose is the sensory organ that gives the sense of
smell.
• The nostrils are the holes in the nose.
• The nostrils open into a hollow space called nasal cavity.
• The roof of the nasal cavity has many sensory cells/
smell receptors to detect smell.
• The nasal cavity is also lined with mucus.
• Mucus moistens and warms air current before it enters
the lungs.
• Hairs in the nostrils trap dust and dirt in the air so that
only clean air enters the lungs.
Detection of Smell…
• Chemicals (e.g.: food & flowers) present in
inhaled air  chemical particles enter
the nasal cavity  chemicals dissolve
in the mucus lining  Smell receptors
stimulated and send out nerve impulses to
the brain  The brain identifies the smell
The sense of Taste…
• The tongue is the sensory organ that gives the sense
of taste.
• The basic tastes are sweet, salty, sour, and bitter.
• The surface of tongue is covered with taste buds.
• Each taste bud contains many taste receptors.
• Taste receptors are sensitive to chemicals in food.
• These chemicals must dissolved in saliva before
they can stimulate the taste receptors.
• The tongue has 4 types of taste receptors: sweet
receptors, sour receptors, salty receptors and bitter
receptors.
• The receptors are located at different parts of the
tongue.
The sense of Taste…
Detection of Taste by the Taste Receptors…
• Chemicals (e.g.: food & flowers) present in
inhaled air  chemical particles enter
the nasal cavity  chemicals dissolve
in the mucus lining  Smell receptors
stimulated and send out nerve impulses to
the brain  The brain identifies the smell
The sense of Hearing…
• The ear is the sensory organ that gives the sense of
hearing that is sensitive to sound stimuli.
• The human ear can be divided into 3 parts: the outer
ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.
The sense of Hearing…
• Pinna collects and directs sound waves into auditory canal.
• Auditory canal directs sound waves to the eardrum.
• Eardrum vibrates at the same frequency with the sound waves
that hit it and transfer the vibration to the ossicles.
• Ossicles amplify the vibration and transfer them from the
eardrum to the oval window.
• Oval window transfers the vibrations from the ossicles to the
inner ear.
• Vibrations of the oval window cause the fluid in the cochlea to
vibrate.
• Vibration/movement of the fluid stimulates the receptors in the
cochlea. Nerve impulses are generated.
• Auditory nerves send nerve impulses to the brain which
interprets the impulses as sound.
• Semicircular canals help the body maintain its balance (not
involved in the mechanism of hearing).
• Eustachian tube helps balance the air pressure on both sides
of the eardrum (not involved in the mechanism of hearing).
The sense of Sight…
• The eyes are the sensory organs of sight which are sensitive to
light.
• The wall of the eyeball is made up of 3 layers: sclera (outer
layer), choroid (middle layer) and retina (innermost layer). It has
many photoreceptors called cones and rods that are sensitive
to light.
The sense of Sight…
• Ciliary muscle (body) contracts and relaxes to change the thickness of
the lens. This changes the focal length of the lens.
• Suspensory ligaments hold the lens in place and connect it to the
ciliary body.
• Aqueous humour helps to refract light and focus the image onto the
retina. It maintains the shape of the eye and the pressure in the eye.
• Conjunctiva, the thin, transparent membrane that protects the cornea.
• Cornea, the curved, transparent layer at the front of the eye. It is a
continuation of the sclera.
• Cornea allows the light to enter the eye. Helps to focus the light onto
the retina by bending the light rays passing through it.
• Iris controls the size of the pupils and hence the amount of light
entering the eye.
• Vitreous humour, the jelly-like material found between the lens and the
retina. It helps keep the shape of the eye spherical. It helps refract
light onto the retina.
• Sclera protects and shapes the eye.
• Choroid, the capillaries supply nutrients and oxygen to the eye.
The black pigments absorb light and prevent reflection of the light.
The sense of Sight…
• Retina detects light stimuli and sends nerve impulses to the
brain.
• Suspensory ligaments hold the lens in place and connect it to
the ciliary body.
• Yellow spot (fovea), the part of the retina most sensitive to the
light. It detects the images of objects formed and changes them
into nerve impulses.
• Blind spot, this point on the retina is not sensitive to the light.
Images falling on this spot cannot be detected because there is
no receptor cells.
• It is the spot where the optic nerves leave the eyeball.
• Optic nerves, send nerve impulses from the retina to the brain
to be interpreted.
• The brain interprets the impulses and converts the inverted
image to an upright image.
How we see…
• Light rays travel from an object and enter the eye through the
pupil.
• The light rays are refracted (bent) by the cornea, aqueous
humour, eye lens and vitreous humour.
• An inverted image smaller than the actual image is formed on
the retina.
• The image stimulates the photoreceptors in the retina to
produce nerve impulses.
• The nerve impulses are sent by the optic nerves to the brain.
• The brain interprets the impulses and converts the inverted
image to an upright image.
Light and Sight…
Properties of Light
• Light is a form of energy that travel at the speed of 3.0 x 108
ms-1.
• Light travels in straight lines in the same medium.
• Light is reflected when it hits an opaque surface.
• Light is refracted when it travels from one transparent
medium to another.
Reflection of Light
• Light which falls on an opaque object maybe absorbed or
reflected.
• Reflection takes place when light rays which fall on the
surface of an opaque object bounces off it.
• The amount and direction of the reflected light depend on
the type of the surface the light falls on.
• Light is refracted when it travels from one transparent
medium to another.
• The image on the a plane mirror is upright, laterally inverted,
same size and same distance from the mirror as the object.
Light and Sight…
Reflection of Light
• Smooth and flat surfaces such as mirrors, glass and shiny
metals will reflect light regularly (Regular reflection).
• Rough and uneven surfaces such as clothes and wood will
cause the light reflected is scattered (Diffused reflection).

The ray of light The ray of light that

that approaches normal bounces off the
the surface surface of an object
P Q

Incident ray Reflected ray

Regular Reflection Diffused Reflection

Application of Reflection of light in daily life…
Reflection of Light
• Plane mirrors are used in bathrooms or bedrooms.
• Side mirrors and rear-view mirrors are used in cars.
• Convex mirrors give a wider scope of view and are
used as security mirrors in shops and fish-eye
mirrors at road bends.
• Concave mirrors magnify images and are used in
microscopes and telescopes.
• Periscopes are used to see above the water surface
in the submarines. A periscope consists of 2 plane
mirrors which reflect and change the direction of
light.
• Kaleidoscopes form colourful images. They are
made from 2 more more plane mirrors which reflect
the light from objects placed between the mirrors.
Reflection of Light …
Reflection of Light …

Concave mirror Periscope

Refraction of Light …
• Light can travel through transparent media such as air, water
and glass.
• Light travels at different speeds in different media.
• When light travels from one medium into another, the change in
the speed of light causes the light to bend or change direction.
• The refraction of light is the bending of light as light travels
through two types of media that have different densities.
• The speed of light increases when light enters a less dense
medium.
• The speed of light decreases when light enters a denser
medium.
• Refraction of light does not occur when the light ray is directly
perpendicular to the surface of the medium. The light will pass
through the medium in a straight line.
• When light travels from a less dense medium (air) to a denser
medium (glass), its speed decreases and the light ray is
refracted towards the normal.
• When light travels from a denser medium (glass) to a less
dense medium (air), its speed increases and the light ray is
refracted away from the normal.
Refraction of Light …
Phenomena of the Refraction of light…
Pond appears to be shallower than it really is
• Light from the bottom of the pond is refracted away from the
normal when light moves out of the water into the air.
• The pond appears to be shallower than the actual depth of the
pond.
Drinking straw in the glass of water appears to be bent
• Light from the straw is refracted away from the normal as it
travels from the water to the air.
• The image of the straw is somewhere above of the bottom of
the glass.
• Thus, the straw appears bent.
Vision Defects and Ways to Correct Them…
• An image is focused exactly on the retina for a person with normal
vision.
• The common defects of vision are:
(a) short-sightedness (myopia)
(b) long-sightedness (hypermetropia)
(c) astigmatism
(d) colour blindness
(e) presbyopia

Focus on retina