LIGHT Waves

Optical illusions
is the right center
circle bigger?

Are the dark lines

straight or do they
appear bent?
Are there three or
four planks?
Salt and Light (Mt 5:13-16)
1. What is the meaning of being
“salt & light of the world”?
2. What are the characteristics of
being a “salt & light of the
world”?
3. As Catholic Christian, how do
you become the “salt & light of
the world”?
Nature of Light: Wave-Particle
Duality
o Plato – light consisted of streamers
emitted by the eye; supported by
Euclid
o Pythagoras – light originated from
luminous bodies in the form of very
fine particles
o Empedocles – light is composed of
high-speed waves of some sort
2 Theories on the basic
nature of light
1st: Wave or Undulatory Theory

 Light has a wave motion which

starts from a vibrating body &
is transmitted at high speed
1st: Wave /Undulatory Theory
 Christian Huygens (1629-1695)
- Light consists of a series of waves
with their wave fronts at right
angles to the path of the rays
- Huygen’s Principle – different points
of a wave front of light set up a
series of secondary waves
- Light may travel through a medium
known as “ether”
2 :
ndCorpuscular/Emission
Theory
 Light consists of tiny particles of
matter emitted by a source that
travel only in straight lines
called rays
 Sir Isaac Newton described light
as a stream of particles or
corpuscles
Wave-particle duality

 Light is a form of energy that is

transferred either as a wave or
a particle
 Proposed by French physicist
Louis de Broglie
Quantum theory of Light
 A blackbody radiation was
emitted in discrete bundles of
energy called quanta (Max
Planck, 1858-1947)
 Light is composed of bundles of
wave energy called photons
(Albert Einstein, 1905)
Photoelectric Effect
 If light falls on a clean surface
of metals, electrons are emitted
by the surface
Light
 A combination of both electrical
& magnetic energy
 Requires no medium
 If light did need a medium in
order to propagate, the Earth
would spend its days submerged
in darkness & the sun would not
be visible.
Speed of Light
o 1st measured by Ole Roemer, a
Danish astronomer, over an
astronomical distance
o 220M m/s
o He made 70 precise
measurements of 42.5 hour
orbital path of Jupiter’s moon, Io
Speed of Light
o 299 792 458 m/s or 3.00 x 108
m/s
o By physicist Albert A. Michelson
o Accepted by the International
Committee on Weights and
Measurements
o c = λf
 Speed of Light
 Light-year – an
astronomical unit used to
measure huge distances in
space; 9.5 x 1012 km;
measure of the distance
traveled by light in a year
Sources of Light &
Its Propagation
Optics
o The branch of Physics which
involves the behavior &
properties of light, including
its interactions with matter
& the construction of
instruments that use or
detect it
 luminous object – an object
that gives off its own light
because of the energy of its
oscillating particles; sun,
stars, light bulbs
 illuminated /non-luminous
object – an object that can be
seen because it reflects light
waves; moon, cars buildings
 Incandescence – when an
object is heated at a very high
temperature, it starts to glow
& become dull red in color
 lower temperatures produce
longer wavelengths (reddish
colors)
 higher temperatures produce
shorter wavelengths (bluish
colors)
 electric discharge through
ionized gases – the process
wherein some gases can be
made to produce light by
passing an electric current
through them
 Luminescence – a process by
which light is produced other
than by heating
a. fluorescence – cooler & uses less
electricity than incandescence;
coated with phosphor which
absorbs ultraviolet energy & glows,
producing visible light; lasts no
more than about 10 nanoseconds
b. phosphorescence – the property of
fluorescent materials to be
periodically recharged by exposure
to light; lasts longer than 10
nanoseconds
 bioluminescence – the
process wherein living
organisms produce their own
light; fireflies; occurs as a
result of chemical reaction
among proteins & oxygen in
the organism
 Rectilinear Propagation of
Light
 Shadow – the area where light
rays cannot reach; a proof that
light travels in straight lines
(Newton); may be classified as
complete or partial depending
on the size of the light source
Umbra – the darker region; full
shadow
Penumbra – lighter region;
partial shadow

Eclipse – a natural phenomenon

that exhibits rectilinear
propagation of light
Solar eclipse – occurs when the
moon casts its shadow on the
earth (S-M-E)
Lunar eclipse – occurs when the
earth casts its shadow on the
moon (S-E-M)
 Brightness of Light
 Photometry – the
measurement of the
brightness of a light source
 Luminous intensity – refers
to the brightness of a light
source & is measured in
terms of candela (cd)
Luminous flux – the rate at
which light is emitted from a
source & strikes the surface of
a whole sphere, expressed in
terms of lumens (lm)
F = 4I
F – flux
I - intensity
Illuminance (E) – the amount
of illumination; the amount of
luminous flux falling on a unit
area of a surface; measured in
terms of lumens per square
meter or lux (lx)
E=
r – distance of source
 Photometer – a device for
comparing the intensities of
two sources
PROPERTIES
OF
LIGHT