Light: A Wave and a Particle

12 topics119 questions
Topics under this module

 Lesson 1: Reflection, Refraction, Transmission, and Absorption of

Light
 Lesson 2: The Emergence of Light: Newton and Descartes
 Lesson 3: Waves
 Lesson 4: Dual Nature of Light
 Lesson 5: The Photon Theory
 Lesson 6: The Relationship Between the Speed of Light,
Wavelength, and Frequency

Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science

Reflection, Refraction, Transmission, and Absorption of Light

Objective
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to describe what happens when light
is reflected, refracted, transmitted, and absorbed.

What happens to light when it interacts with matter?

Learn about it!

When light interacts with matter, it can be reflected, refracted, transmitted, or
absorbed.

Reflection

Reflection occurs when light bounces back as it hits a reflecting surface, such as
a mirror. This phenomenon can be described using light rays.
The ray of light that hits the reflecting surface is called an incident ray. After
hitting the surface, it bounces off as a reflected ray. The incident ray and the
reflected ray form angles with the normal line, which is a line perpendicular to the
reflecting surface. These angles are called angle of incidence and angle of
reflection, respectively.

The relationship between the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection is
illustrated in the law of reflection. This law states that the angle of incidence, the
angle of reflection, and the normal line are found on the same plane; and the
angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.
Learn about it!
Refraction

Refraction is the bending of light due to the change in its speed when it obliquely
passes two different media. When light travels from a medium with a low
refractive index to a medium with a higher refractive index, it slows down and
refracts closer to the normal line. On the other hand, when light travels from a
medium with a high refractive index to a medium with a lower refractive index, it
speeds up and refracts away from the normal line.

The light ray that is entering a different medium is called the incident ray while
the bent ray is called the refracted ray.

Learn about it!

Refraction

Refraction is the bending of light due to the change in its speed when it obliquely
passes two different media. When light travels from a medium with a low
refractive index to a medium with a higher refractive index, it slows down and
refracts closer to the normal line. On the other hand, when light travels from a
medium with a high refractive index to a medium with a lower refractive index, it
speeds up and refracts away from the normal line.

The light ray that is entering a different medium is called the incident ray while
the bent ray is called the refracted ray.

Learn about it!

Transmission

Transmission is the passing of light through a material without being absorbed.

For instance, an incoming light will just pass through a glass window as
transmitted light.
Learn about it!
Absorption

Absorption of light occurs when light strikes a material, and the energy that it
carries is absorbed by the atoms of the material and is converted into thermal
energy.

White light is composed of different components of a spectrum: red, orange,

yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROYGBIV). When an object reflects all the
components of light, it appears white. However, when an object absorbs all the
components of light, it appears black.

Selective absorption describes the tendency of an object to absorb specific

frequencies of light. An object that appears with a particular color means that the
object absorbs most of the frequencies and reflects only the color of the object.
For instance, the leaf absorbs all the frequencies of light except for green. The
green color is reflected and perceived by the observer’s eye.
Explore!
Imagine a marching band that marches in a straight line from a solid ground into
a muddy land.

What do you think will happen to the speed of the marching band as it moves
from the solid ground to the muddy land? How can you relate this with the
refraction of light?

Try it!
Get a number of colored pieces of cellophane and a flashlight. Then ask
somebody to shine the flashlight on the cellophane.

Answer the following questions:

1. What can you say about the color that passes through the cellophane and
the color of the cellophane used?
2. What happened to the rest of the spectrum colors that you did not see?
What do you think?
Can light be reflected and refracted at the same time?

Key Points
 Reflection is the bouncing back of light when it strikes a surface.
 Refraction is the bending of light due to the change in its speed when
passing two different media.
 Transmission is the passing of light through a material without being
absorbed.
 Absorption of light occurs when light strikes a material, and the energy
that it carries is absorbed by the atoms of the material and is converted
into thermal energy.
Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science
The Emergence of Light: Newton and Descartes

Objective
At the end of the lesson, you will be able to explain how Newton and Descartes
described the emergence of light in various colors through prisms.

Descartes viewed light as waves while Newton believed that light was composed
of tiny particles called corpuscles. Both of them knew that when light passed
through a prism, different colors were produced.

How did the two scientists explain the separation of light into different
colors when it passed through a prism?

Learn about it!

Two of the many scientists who studied the behavior of light were Rene
Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton. Separately, they conducted experiments using
a prism to explain the emergence of the colors of light upon passing it.

Rene Descartes's View on the Emergence of Colors of Light

Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who

first studied and explained the concept of refraction. In one of his experiments,
he produced a rainbow by using a water-filled glass sphere and sunlight. He
explained that refraction of light caused the formation of rainbows. He then
studied the refraction and emergence of colors of light in a prism. He observed
that the different colors of light refracted at varying degrees. He noted that the
red light refracted more than the blue light.

Descartes explained the emergence of the colors of light using the concept of
the plenum, the invisible substance that permeated the universe. He thought that
light was a disturbance that traveled through the plenum. He pictured the
particles of plenum as tiny balls which were in contact, and rotating with the
same speed. He explained that when these particles passed through the prism
and encountered a slit on the edge, their rotational speed would change. This
change resulted in the emergence of a color. Other parts of the slit produced
other colors of light.
Learn about it!
Sir Isaac Newton's View on the Emergence of Colors of Light

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician who was famous
because of his contributions in describing motion and the nature of light. His
studies included the emergence of colors as light passed through a prism. In his
experiment, he saw that the red light refracted the least while the violet light
refracted the most. According to Newton, this difference in refraction occurred
due to the differences in the mass of the colors of light.

Newton believed that particles of matter exert equal force to the particles of light
regardless of its color. He then explained that when light particles passed
through an interface of matter, the colors of light which have different mass and
inertia will be deflected at varying degrees. He noted that particles with greater
mass and inertia are deflected less when acted upon by the same force. For
instance, particles of red light has more mass than those of violet light.
Therefore, red light was deflected less than the violet light.

Try it!
Create a Venn diagram to show the similarities and differences of Newton and
Descartes’ view on the emergence of light in various colors through prisms.

What do you think?

The ideas of Descartes and Newton are not the same. Can you cite instances
where their ideas are parallel?

Key Points
 Rene Descartes believed that colors emerge from light when the rolling
balls that make up a substance change speed when light passes through
it. When the balls encounter a slit on the edge of a prism, the ball next to
 the slit starts to rotate which causes the change in the speed of the rotation
of the balls and this change produced a color.
 Sir Isaac Newton believed that light colors emerge upon passing a prism
due to the difference in the mass and inertia of the colors that caused the
difference of deflection of each.
Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science
Waves

Objective
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to cite examples of waves (e.g.,
water, stadium, sound, string, and light waves).

Waves are disturbances produced by vibrating particles of matter. They transfer

energy as they propagate through a medium or space.

Learn about it!

Waves can be classified in two ways. They can be classified based on (1) how
they propagate; and (2) the orientation of the wave propagation relative to the
direction of energy transfer.

Mechanical and Electromagnetic Waves

Waves can be classified based on how they propagate or their ability to transmit
energy through a vacuum. They can be
either mechanical or electromagnetic waves.

There are waves that can only propagate when a medium is available; they are
called mechanical waves. Some examples of these waves are:

 Sound waves, which can travel fastest on solids.

 Water waves, which need water to propagate.
 Seismic waves, which can travel through and on the surface of Earth.
 Stadium waves, which can propagate through the movement of the
people in a stadium.
 Slinky, string, and jump rope waves, which can propagate when used.

There are waves that can still travel even without a medium.These type of
waves are called electromagnetic (EM) waves. They are produced by the
vibration of charged particles. There are seven EM waves arranged either from
increasing frequency or decreasing wavelength. They are the following:
  Radio waves, which are used to transmit radio and TV signals.
 Microwaves, which are used in microwave ovens and in sending
messages through cellular phones.
 Infrared, which has a medical application in detecting heat leaks.
 Visible light, which is the only EM wave that can be seen by the naked
eye.
 Ultraviolet, which is blocked by the ozone layer because too much of this
can cause skin cancer.
 X-rays, which can penetrate through most of the things and also used for
medical purposes.
 Gamma rays, which are more penetrating than X-rays and also used for
medical purposes.

Learn about it!

Longitudinal and Transverse Waves

Waves carry energy, and the direction of the energy transfer relative to the
direction of the wave is the other way of classifying waves. Waves can either be
longitudinal or transverse.

Longitudinal waves propagate parallel to the direction of the energy transfer.

The movement of these waves is back and forth, and they carry the energy in
that direction as well. Longitudinal waves are composed of regions of
compressions and rarefactions.

Compressions are regions where the particles are closest to each

other. Rarefactions are regions where the particles are furthest from each other.
Examples of these waves are the sound waves and earthquake waves.
Transverse waves propagate perpendicular to the direction of the energy transfer. They move in up
and down manner and they carry the energy back and forth. These waves are composed of various
parts such as crests, troughs, amplitudes, and wavelengths.

The crest is the top of the wave while the trough is the bottom of the wave. The amplitude is the
maximum displacement of the wave from the horizontal axis or its origin. The wavelength refers to
distance between a crest and a crest or a trough and a trough. Examples of these waves are the EM
waves and waves on a string.
Explore!
Surface waves are the combination of transverse and longitudinal waves. How
will you describe the movement of a surface wave?

Try it!
Get a slinky and make the transverse and longitudinal waves. Did you observe
the same pattern as stated in the discussion?

What do you think?

During the old times, when there were no phones yet, people tend to place their
ear on the ground to know if there are people or animals heading to their place.
What do you think are the reasons behind this scenario?
Key Points
 Waves can be classified in two ways. They can be classified based on (1)
how they propagate; and (2) the direction of wave propagation relative to
the direction of energy transfer.
 Mechanical waves need a medium to propagate. Examples of mechanical
waves are water waves and sound waves.
 Electromagnetic waves do not need any medium to propagate. Examples
of these waves include microwaves and X-rays.
 Transverse waves travel perpendicularly relative to the direction of energy
transfer.
 Longitudinal waves travel in a parallel direction relative to the direction of
energy transfer.
Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science
Dual Nature of Light

Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

 describe how the propagation of light, reflection, and refraction are

explained by the wave model and the particle model of light; and
 describe how Galileo and Roemer contributed to the eventual acceptance
of the view that the speed of light is finite.

What happens to light when it hits a surface?

Learn about it!

Propagation of Light, Reflection, and Refraction

There were two prominent theories about the nature of light back in the
seventeenth century. These are the wave theory and the particle theory.

The Wave Theory of Light

In 1690, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer and physicist, proposed

the wave theory of light. This theory states that light is a longitudinal
wave transmitted through an aether ‒ a mystical substance that exists and fills
all the spaces in the universe. He believed that the aether moved in the same
direction as light, and formed a wave which carried the light waves.

The Corpuscular Theory of Light

In 1675, Isaac Newton proposed the corpuscular theory, also known as

the particle theory of light. This theory states that light was composed of tiny
particles called corpuscles. According to Newton, light traveled through a
vacuum in a straight line, and cannot be considered as a wave.
Learn about it!
Refraction

According to the wave theory, when a beam of light travels into two different
refractive indices, the beam undergoes refraction by changing its direction as it
passes from the first medium into the next medium. Some of the light waves
would pass through, while the rest of the waves travel at a slower rate in the first
medium due to the high refractive index of the second medium. Since the
wavefront is traveling at two different speeds, it will bend in the second medium
thus, changing the angle of propagation. Just like how the sound
waves and water waves refract, light follows the same way.

On the other hand, the particle theory of light suggested that when the light
particles pass through a medium like water, they experience an attractive force
towards the water. When light passes from air (less dense medium) to water
(denser medium), it slows down and bends towards the normal which means
away from the surface.
Learn about it!
Reflection

According to the wave theory, when light waves struck a mirror, they are
reflected according to their angles, but the wave turned back to front and
produced a reversed image. The shape of the waves depends on the distance of
light from the mirror. Just like sound waves, which echoes upon striking a
surface, light waves behaves the same way.

Learn about it!

The Speed of Light

In 1638, Galileo Galilei conducted an experiment to measure the speed of light by positioning two
observers, each with lanterns equipped with shutters.

The time between the openings of the shutters of the two observers indicated the time for the light to
travel back and forth between lamps. Light traveled so fast that made it impossible to measure the
time interval with just using the shutters.

This led to his basic principle or relativity, which states that the same laws of motion are applied to
any system that is moving at a constant speed, regardless of their specific speed and direction.
Ole Roemer in 1678 was the first person to measure the speed of light. He was observing the orbit
of Io, the closest of the four large moons of Jupiter. His goal was to get an accurate value for the
moon’s orbital period by the eclipses of Io by Jupiter.

The orbital value of Io is 1.769 Earth days. The moon is eclipsed by Jupiter once every orbit. As the
years past, Roemer noticed that the time interval between eclipses became shorter as Earth moved
toward Jupiter and longer when it moved away from it.

He concluded based on the collected data that the time difference was due to the finite speed of
light. The light coming from Jupiter had to travel farther to reach Earth when they are on the opposite
sides of the sun than when they are close to each other. He estimated that the time required for light
to travel across Earth’s diameter is twenty minutes. Thus, the speed of light can be computed by
dividing the diameter of Earth’s orbit by the time difference.

Explore!
Have two identical flashlights and turn them on in such a way that light from the
flashlight will cross each other. What do you see on the point of intersection of
the two lights?

Try it!
Try to observe the smoke that comes from a barbeque stand or from a grill.
Looking from afar, does the smoke appears like a wave? Try to move closer to
the smoke and observe it. What do you see?

What do you think?

Will it be possible to see the dual nature of light at the same time?

Key Points
 In 1690, Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer and physicist,
proposed the wave theory, which states that light was a longitudinal wave
transmitted through an aether.
 In 1960, Isaac Newton proposed the corpuscular theory also known as
the particle theory, which states that light was composed of tiny particles
called corpuscles.
 Galileo Galilei tried to measure the speed of light, but needed much
longer distance to have a significant measurement.
 Ole Roemer was able to measure the speed of light by studying the
changes in the time of orbit of Io, a moon of Jupiter.
Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science
The Photon Theory

Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

 explain how the photon theory of light accounts for atomic spectra;
 discuss why red light is used in photographic dark rooms;
 determine why you easily get sunburned in ultraviolet light but not in visible
light; and
 explain how you see colors.

Have you ever wondered how we see colors?

Learn about it!

The Photon Theory of Light

Atoms are composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Inside an atom,

electrons are located at specific energy levels, and they can move to higher
energy level when given a certain amount of energy, for example through
collisions with light.

Light is composed of photons. Based on the photon theory of light, a photon is a

discrete bundle of electromagnetic energy moving at the speed of light, has no
rest mass but has momentum, and carries energy. This energy is given to an
electron upon their collision, which causes it to move up to the next energy level.
After about 10-8 s, it will go back to its original level and emit light in the form of
photons.

The emitted light has a certain wavelength that corresponds to different colors. It
can be observed as a series of colored lines with black spaces in between. This
is called atomic spectra. Each element has its unique set of spectral lines.
Learn about it!
The Photoelectric Effect

The photoelectric effect refers to the ejection of electrons from a surface of a

metal in response to light directed to the metal.

Albert Einstein proposed that light consisted of individual photons, which

interacted with the electrons in the surface of the metal. For each frequency
or color of the incident light, each photon carried energy.

Increasing intensity of light corresponded to increasing incident of photons while

the energy of the photons remained the same. More electrons are ejected upon
the increase in incident light. Increasing the frequency of light would increase the
energy of the ejected electrons.

The energy carried by a photon is directly proportional to its frequency. The

arrangement of the visible spectrum of light shows that red color has the least
frequency, which means it also has the least energy.

Since photographers use light-sensitive photographic papers, red light would not
overexpose and ruin the pictures during the developing process.
Learn about it!
Color Spectra

Colors are not innate to objects. They give off light that appears as colors. Colors
only exist in the human visual system and is determined by frequencies. When
light reaches the eye, it falls into a receptor cell at the back of the eye or retina
and gives signals to the brain, which interprets the image with colors.
Ultraviolet Radiation

Different colors of light have photons of different energies. Based on the frequency and wavelength
in a visible light, red has low frequency and long wavelength, which means that it contains less
energy. Blue, on the other hand, has high frequency and short wavelength, which means it
contains more energy. Beyond the visible light, the ultraviolet light has greater frequency and
shorter wavelength, which means it carries greater energy than the visible light. This explains why
we easily get sunburned under the ultraviolet rays of light than under the visible light.

Explore!
Imagine you are looking at a rainbow. You can see the ROYGBIV colors namely
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. They are seen under a visible
light. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation comes right after violet. How come UV is invisible
to us?

Try it!
Get three (3) different colored pieces of cellophanes (red, blue, and green), one
red apple, one green leaf, and a cotton ball. Place each object behind each
cellophane one at a time.
What do you think happens to the color of the object when it passes through
colored screens like cellophane?

What do you think?

Infrared and ultraviolet fall outside the visible light. Under certain conditions, can
infrared be seen with the naked eye?

Key Points
 The photon theory of light states that a photon is a discrete bundle of
electromagnetic energy moving at the speed of light; it has no rest mass
but has a momentum and carries energy.
 Atomic spectra is the unique set of frequencies emitted by an atom
whenever its electron undergoes excitation and returns to its original
energy level.
 The frequency of a photon is directly proportional to the energy it carries.
The higher the frequency of the photon, the greater is its energy.
 Since red light has the least frequency in the color spectrum of light, it also
has the least amount of energy and can therefore be used in photographic
dark rooms because it would have the least effect on a very sensitive
paper film.
 Given that ultraviolet has a higher frequency than the visible light, it follows
that it would also have greater energy, which causes us to get easily
sunburned under the UV light compared to visible light.
 The colors we see depends on the frequency of light that the object
absorbs and reflects.
Light: A Wave and a Particle, Physical Science
The Relationship Between the Speed of Light, Wavelength, and
Frequency

Objective
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to apply the wavelength-speed-
frequency relation.

All forms of electromagnetic radiation, including the visible light which is

perceived with our eyes, travel at a constant speed in vacuum.

What is the relationship between the wavelength and frequency of light?

Learn about it!

What is the frequency of light with a wavelength of 628 nm?

Light, like other forms of electromagnetic radiation, is characterized by its

wavelength, frequency, and speed.
Try it!
The frequency of blue light as it scatters in the sky is 7.5x1014Hz. What is the
wavelength of this blue light in nanometers?

Try it! Solution

Try it!
Apply the relationship of the speed of light, its wavelength, and its frequency in solving the following
problems.

1. A specific light wave has a wavelength of 675 nm. What is the frequency of the wave?
2. The red light has a wavelength of 690 nm. What is the frequency of the red light?

What do you think?

If a light wave moving at a constant speed reduces its frequency to one-half, what do you think will
happen to its wavelength?