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Written by Brian Roberts

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Light
A Science AZ Physical Series
Word Count: 1,743
Light
Written by Brian Roberts
www.sciencea-z.com
KEY ELEMENTS USED IN THIS BOOK
The Big Idea: Many aspects of our lives are affected by or dependent
upon light. In addition to learning about light, students may gain an
appreciation for the extensive roles that light plays in their lives.
Key words: absorb, color, concave, convex, peak, Earth, eclipse, electricity,
energy, eye, fluorescent, frequency, gamma waves, incandescent, invisible, iris,
laser, lens, light, lightning, light-year, Moon, opaque, photon, pigment, prism,
pupil, radiant, radio waves, rainbow, reflection, refraction, retina, shadow,
spectrum, Sun, translucent, transparent, visible, wavelength, white light
Key comprehension skill: Interpret charts, graphs, and diagrams
Other suitable comprehension skills: Main idea and details; compare
and contrast; summarize information; identify facts; elements of a genre;
classify information
Key reading strategy: Ask and answer questions
Other suitable reading strategies: Connect to prior knowledge; summarize;
visualize; make, revise, and confirm predictions
Light
Light
Learning AZ
Written by Brian Roberts
All rights reserved.
www.sciencea-z.com
Photo Credits:
Front cover: iStockphoto.com/Sergei Popov; back cover, page 4: iStockphoto.com/
Manuela Miller; title page, pages 3, 9, 10, 11 (top left, bottom), 15, 16 (bottom left), 18 (left),
22 (left, bottom right): Jupiterimages Corporation; page 11 (top right): Ron Brown/PBase;
page 12 (center): iStockphoto.com/Mageda Merbouh; page 12 (bottom): Bud Yunt;
page 16 (bottom right): iStockphoto.com/Thomas Tuchan; page 17: iStockphoto.com/
Andrei Tchernov; page 18 (right): Alexandr Mitiuc/Dreamstime.com; page 19: iStockphoto.com/
Anttelinnea; page 22 (top right): iStockphoto.com/Otmar Smit
Illustration Credits:
Pages 5, 9, 20 (top): Casey Jones/ Learning AZ; pages 8, 16, 20 (bottom): Learning AZ;
pages 6, 7, 1215, 17, 21: Sholto Ainslie/ Learning AZ
3 4
Table of Contents
Introduction ...................................................... 4
What Is Light? ................................................... 5
How Light Moves ............................................ 6
Where Does Light Come From? ................... 10
How Light Interacts with Objects ................ 14
Reection ......................................................... 15
Refraction ........................................................ 17
All About Color .............................................. 21
Human Eye ..................................................... 22
Conclusion ...................................................... 23
Glossary ........................................................... 24
Index ................................................................ 24
Introduction
If youve ever walked into a closet and
closed the door, youve been in a world
without light. Without light, we cant see.
But allowing us to see things is only one
important thing about light.
This book will reveal many of the fascinating
facts that scientists have found out about light.
These facts include what it is, where it comes
from, how it moves, and what happens when
light strikes different surfaces. There is much
more to light than meets the eye.
Seen from above Earth,
light from the Sun reflects
off Earths oceans.
5 6
What Is Light?
Light is a kind of energy. It is called radiant
energy. There are many kinds of radiant energy,
but light is the kind you can see. Scientists
usually describe the range of energy as a
spectrum. A spectrum is a series of energy
bands. The diagram above shows bands of
radiant energy. Visible light is only a small
part of the spectrum, in the middle. On each
side of visible light is invisible radiant energy.
The bands on the left have less energy
than the bands on the right. For example,
radio waves are much less powerful than
gamma waves.
How Light Moves
There are two ways to describe light and how
it moves. The rst way is as tiny, invisible
packets of energy called photons. They dont
weigh anythingeven billions of them together!
Photons have different amounts of energy.
High-powered gamma ray photons have more
energy than photons of visible light. Even
in visible light, different colors of light have
different amounts of energy. For example,
violet light photons have more energy than
red light photons.
Gamma TV Microwaves Infrared
Radio
Waves
Detail of Visible Light
Ultra-
violet
X-ray
High-Frequency Low-Frequency
Short Wavelength Long Wavelength
red orange yellow green blue violet
Light is just one of many kinds of radiant energy.
red light
violet light
Violet light photons have shorter wavelengths and more energy
than red light photons.
COMPARING COLORS OF LIGHT
KINDS OF RADIANT ENERGY
7 8
The second way of describing light is
as a wave. Waves are measured by their
frequency, or how closely together they
move. High-frequency waves travel more
closely together. Low-frequency waves are
spread out. More high-frequency waves than
low-frequency waves will pass the same place
in the same time. Scientists measure frequency
by a waves wavelength. Wavelength is the
distance between the peak of one wave and
the peak of the wave next to it.
Look at the diagram of two waves. The
low-frequency wave is spread out. It has
a longer wavelength. The longer the
wavelength, the lower the waves energy.
There are a few more things to know about
lights movement. One is that it travels in
straight lines. Another is that beams of light
can change direction. You will read more
about this in the section on how light behaves.
A third thing to know about how light
moves is thatunlike soundit does not
need anything to travel through, such as air,
water, or wood. This makes radiant energy
specialit can even travel through the
emptiness of space. If radiant energy could
not do this, sunlight would never reach Earth.
Light rays travel in a straight line through space from the
Sun to Earth.
WAVELENGTHS
high-frequency wave
low-frequency wave
9 10
Another amazing thing
about light is how fast it
travels. Nothing we know of
is faster. Light moves 300,000
kilometers (186,000 mi.)
through space in one second.
This is much faster than sound.
For this reason, you can see lightning several
seconds before you hear its thunder.
Because light travels so fast and far in space,
scientists have made a special unit called a
light-year. It is the distance light travels in
one year. Thats about 9.5 trillion kilometers
(5.9 trillion mi.)!
Where Does Light Come From?
There are two types of light sources
natural and human-made. The most important
natural source of light is the Sun. The radiant
energy it sends to Earth provides many
things. It is responsible for the food we eat,
our weather, most of our electricity and fuel,
and the warmth of our atmosphere. But the
Suns heat does not travel all the way to Earth.
The Sun is much too far from Earth for that
to happen. Instead, Earths surface absorbs
radiant energy from the Sun. Then the light
changes to heat energy.
The Sun is just one of many, many stars.
Because the Sun is much closer to Earth than
any other star,
we get large
amounts of
energy from it.
The distance from Earth to the Sun is about 150
million kilometers. Light moves at about 300,000
kilometers per second. About how long does it
take light to reach Earth from the Sun?
The Sun is a giant ball of energy and
gases. It sends light in every direction.
The Sun is the closest star to Earth, at just 150 million
kilometers away. The next closest star is 4.2 light-years
away. Light from Alpha Centauri travels 4.2 years to get
to Earth. It would take a spaceship 80,000 years to get
to that star.
Earth
Sun
Alpha Centauri
There are also sources of natural light.
One example is lightning. Lightning is made
of particles of air that get so hot, they create
light energy. Some volcanoes produce lava
that glows. And animals like reies and
glowworms make light.
But people wanted light when there was
no natural light. So they invented ways to
create light. At rst, they used
campres and oil lamps. Then
Thomas Edison developed the
modern lightbulb. He put an
electric current through a thin
wire. The wire heated up and
glowed. This type of lightbulb
is called an incandescent bulb.
Later, inventors found another
way to make a lightbulb. This
bulb sends electricity through
a long glass tube lled with a
special gas. The gas gives off
invisible photons. The photons
hit the inside of the glass tube, which is
covered with a chemical. The chemical gives
off visible light when the invisible photons
hit it. We call this a uorescent bulb.
11 12
Neon lights are like uorescent
lights. But neon lights use
different gases than uorescent
lights. These gases produce
different-colored light.
an incandescent
bulb
coating
glass tube
special gas
cathode
visible light
ultraviolet light
electricity
FLUORESCENT BULB
Lava and fireflies are two natural sources of light.
13 14
Another type of human-made light that
people often use is laser light. When light is
focused, it can be quite powerful. Laser light
is highly focused light. Unlike light from a
lightbulb, laser light does not spread out or
weaken. Instead, it looks like a straight line.
A laser beam is narrow and concentrated.
The light is all about the same wavelength.
Lasers are used to cut metal, make cuts during
surgery, read images in scanners and printers,
and read CDs and DVDs.
How Light Interacts with Objects
Light does different things when it hits
different materials and surfaces. Almost all
of the light goes through clear materials.
Clear materials like glass are transparent.
Only some light passes through things such
as wax paper. These materials are translucent.
Still other materials block all light. They
absorb or reect all the light that strikes
them. These materials are opaque. A brick
wall is an opaque material.
The word laser is an acronym. It stands for the rst
letters of the words that describe how it is made:
Light Amplication by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.
no diffusion
diffusion
Incandescent
Light
Laser Light
Laser light does not diffuse, or weaken, as fast as other light.
Windows let almost all light through, but books block light.
Translucent vases block some light waves and let others through.
translucent
transparent
opaque
A solar eclipse occurs when
the Moon passes between
Earth and the Sun. A lunar
eclipse occurs when the Moon
moves through Earths shadow.
15 16
Reection
We see things because light bounces, or
reects, off of them. Light that hits something
smooth reects off of it at the same angle at
which the light hit it. If the surface is very
smooth, like a mirror, the reection looks
normal. That is why a smooth, at mirror
allows you to see a normal image of yourself.
But if a surface is uneven, light reects
in many directions. Waves seem to sparkle
because the waters surface is uneven, which
causes the light to reect in many directions.
Because light cannot pass
through opaque objects, it
creates shadows. The size
of the shadow depends on
the distance from the light
to the object and the distance
from the object to the surface
behind it. If a light source is
close to an object, the shadow
can be larger than the object, and if it is far from
the object, its shadow can be small. If the object
is close to the surface behind it, the shadow will
be smaller than if its far away.
Another thing that matters is the angle of
the light. If the light is right above an object
(Illustration B) it will make a small shadow.
But if the light is to the side (Illustration A),
the shadow can be bigger than the object itself.
This is why you cast a bigger shadow when the
Sun is lower in the sky.
The Moon does not produce its
own light. Instead, its surface
reects light from the Sun.
A rough surface has many angles that scatter reflected light in
many directions. A smooth surface reflects light in a regular pattern.
Illustration B
Illustration A
17 18
Refraction
When light goes from one transparent
material to anotherlike from air to water
it changes speed and bends. When light
bends, the process is called refraction. Some
materials refract light more than others. For
example, light travels more slowly through
water than it travels through air. Look at the
photo of the spoon in a glass of water. Because
the light changes speed as it moves from air to
water, the spoon looks bent.
Light also refracts when it goes through
transparent lenses. The diagrams above show
what happens when light goes through a
convex lens or a concave lens.
All About Color
Light has many colors. Most visible light
has many colors of light in it. When light has
all the colors in it, we call it white light. You
cant see the colors of light until they are
reected or refracted to your eyes. Sunlight
and light from lightbulbs send out white light.
You can see the colors of light by sending
light through a prism. The prism refracts the
light and separates its colors into a rainbow.
Each color of light bends slightly differently
than the others. Raindrops can act as prisms.
They can refract sunlight into the colors you
see in a rainbow.
The different speeds
of light through water
and air make the
spoon look bent.
convex lens
concave lens
Raindrops act like prisms
they refract white light into
bands of color.
LENSES
Convex lenses focus light, and
concave lenses spread light out.
When an object absorbs all colors of light
and reects no color, it looks black. Something
that looks white reects all colors and absorbs
none. Black surfaces absorb more light energy
than white surfaces. The light they absorb
turns into heat energy. So black surfaces will
get warmer than white surfaces when the same
light hits them.
Just like paint,
colored light can
be mixed to make
new colors of light.
But all the colors
of light mixed
together make
white, not black.
19 20
Pigments cause things to be a certain color.
Pigments are materials that absorb some colors
of light and reect others.
A ripe tomato looks red because it has red
pigment. This pigment absorbs all the colors
except red. Red light gets reected. An unripe
tomato would have green pigment. It would
absorb red light and only reect green. The
color would let you know to pick a different
tomato.
Paints are pigments that are put on the
surfaces of objects. Mixing pigments can create
a variety of colors. The three primary pigments
are red, blue, and yellow. They can be combined
to make any other color.
The red tomato absorbs all but red light, and the green tomato
absorbs all but green light.
green light
reflected
red light
reflected
MIXING PIGMENTS
red
orange purple
black
yellow
green
blue
All colors of light
together make white.
MIXING LIGHT
red
yellow
purple
(magenta)
white
green
light blue
(cyan)
blue
21 22
Human Eye
Your eyes are like cameras. They collect
light that your brain interprets as pictures.
Like a camera, each eye has a small opening
that light goes through. This is called the pupil.
Your eyes also have a colored circle around
the pupil called the iris. The iris controls the
amount of light that enters the pupil. Light
entering the pupil goes through a clear,
convex lens. The lens focuses the light on
light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye.
This tissue is called the retina. It sends a
signal to the brain. Your brain turns the
signal into what you see.
Conclusion
You have learned that light is energy. It
can travel through space. Light does some
amazing things, such as bending, refracting,
reecting, and being absorbed, and it does
these things very fast. Because it can do
all these things, we see the world the way
we do.
The lens of the eye focuses light on the retina, which sends
a signal to the brain.
Light helps our food grow,
powers our homes, and
does more amazing things.
What can you do with light?
iris
retina
optic
nerve
image pupil
lens
23 24
Glossary
concave lens a lens that is wider at the edges than
in the middle and that refracts light
rays so they bend outward (p. 17)
convex lens a lens that is wider in the middle
than it is at the edges and that
refracts light rays so they come
together (p. 17)
uorescent a lightbulb in which electricity
bulb goes through a gas that reacts
with a chemical inside the bulb
to make light (p. 12)
frequency the number of waves that pass
a point in a specic length of
time (p. 7)
incandescent a lightbulb in which electricity
bulb passes through a wire, which
heats up and produces light (p. 11)
light-year a unit that is the distance that light
travels in one year (p. 9)
opaque blocking all light from passing; not
see-through (p. 14)
photon the smallest particle of light energy
(p. 6)
pigments substances that give color by
reecting some colors of light and
absorbing other colors of light (p. 19)
reection the return of light as it bounces off
something (p. 15)
refraction the bending of light waves when
they pass from one kind of matter
to another (p. 17)
retina a layer of light-sensitive cells
at the back of the eye (p. 21)
spectrum the range of radiant energy,
arranged in order of energy
or wavelength (p. 5)
translucent allowing some light through;
images are distorted (p. 14)
transparent allowing all light through; images
are not distorted (p. 14)
wavelength the distance between two
consecutive peaks or troughs
of a wave (p. 7)
white light all the colors of light mixed
together (p. 18)
Index
color, 6, 12, 1821
eclipse, 16
human-made light, 1013
lasers, 13
lenses, 17, 21
speed of light, 9, 17
Moon, 15, 16
natural light, 10, 11
prism, 18
Sun, 4, 810, 15,
16, 18

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