How is Light Reflected?

reflection is when light hits a surface and bounces back the “incoming ray” is the incident ray the “outgoing ray” is the reflected ray how light bounces off a surface is called the Law of Reflection

Complete Reflection Activity Based on this what do you believe the Law of Reflection states? on a smooth surface Incident Ray Reflecting Ray Normal is the line perpendicular to the reflecting surface

The Law of Reflection states that: the angle of reflection = the angle of incidence normal is the line perpendicular to the reflecting surface on a smooth surface

mirror You can use a protractor to measure the angle of incidence for an incident ray, and the angle of reflection of for a reflected ray. normal line angle of incidence is 47 o incident ray reflecting ray angle of reflection is 47 o

mirror You can use a protractor to measure the angle of incidence for an incident ray, and the angle of reflection of for a reflected ray.

the angle of reflection will be different depending on if the surface is smooth or rough Light reflects evenly, at an opposite angle. Light reflects in a scattered pattern.

How does a mirror work? light reflects from a smooth mirror following the law of reflection but why does the reflected object appear as if it is behind the mirror? and why does the image seem to be opposite (mirror image)?

How does a mirror work? light shines on an object… and light is reflected from the object reflected light hits the mirror… and are reflected back –according to the law of reflection rays of light (image) that reach your eye APPEAR to be coming from behind the mirror –because your brain believes light travels in straight lines and so it concludes (and tells you) the object is behind the mirror

AThe distance that our brain believes the object is from our eye (A) is equal to the distance the light traveled from the box to the mirror (B) and then to our eye (C) C B The light travels from the box in front of the mirror, to the mirror and reflects back to our eye. But our brain interprets the box as being behind the mirror because we believe light travels in a straight line.

Why are the letters written forwards & backwards?

Do mirrors reverse left and right? not really… if you hold your right hand up while looking in the mirror you see a right hand up but you interpret it as being a left hand because your brain thinks there is a person facing you from behind the mirror

What is Refraction? the speed a ray of light travels depends on the substance it is traveling through –every substance has a refractive index which is a measure of how fast a ray of light will travel through it when the ray of light changes substances its speed of travel changes therefore the ray of light seems to bend

the rays of light travel through air faster than water that’s because there are more particles in the water to slow it down so the pencil appears broken at the point the light rays change from water to air

the starting ray of light (in the 1 st substance) is called the incident ray the ray of light in the 2 nd substance is called the refracted ray

Law of Refraction when light travels from one medium to another, denser medium, the light will be bent toward the normal and when it exits the denser medium into a less dense medium it will bend away from the normal the new direction of light is called the angle of refraction.

when light travels from a less dense substance to a more dense substance (e.g. from air to water) it will bend TOWARD the normal line when light travels from a denser substance to a less dense substance (e.g. from water to air) the ray will bend away from the normal line bends toward normal bends away from normal Law of Refraction

looking from above the straw looks broken and as if one piece is shifted sideways that is because of “optics”

Optics and Refraction when we see a ray of light coming towards us we believe it is traveling in a straight line (instead of being bent) so we imaging the object as being in a straight line from our eye that’s why objects appear at a different place then we think in a pail of water