INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM

BOYS MIDDLE SECTION

E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lesson No-16 & Name of the Topic: Light Text Book Page No: 201 to 215

Light: It is a form of energy that stimulates sight and makes things visible.

How do we see objects?

Our eyes alone do not allow us to see. Light from a source falls on an object and then bounces off
onto our eyes and that is how we perceive it.

Luminous objects: Objects that give out light on their own are called luminous objects. Eg. Sun,
firefly, electric bulb, candle, lamp etc.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Non-Luminous objects: Objects that do not give out light on their own are called non-luminous
objects. They just reflect light that falls on them. Eg. Moon, plantets, table, chair blackboard.

Reflection of Light: Bouncing back of light after striking a shiny or polished surface, in the same
medium, is called reflection.

Light falling on a mirror

Incident ray - The ray of light that falls on the surface is called incident ray.
Reflected ray - The ray of the light that gets reflected back from the surface is called reflected
ray.
Normal - It is an imaginary line that is drawn perpendicular to the reflecting surface at the
point where the incident ray strikes the surface or at the point of incidence.
The angle of incidence (i) - It is the angle that the incident ray makes with the normal.
The angle of reflection (r) - It is the angle that the reflected ray makes with the normal.

Laws of Reflection: The two laws of reflection are:

(i) The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

(ii) The incident ray, the normal to the mirror at the point of incidence and the reflected ray, all lie
in the same plane.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

˂i=˂r
Formation of Image by Plane Mirror:
In figure PQ is a plain mirror and O is an object. Incident rays OA and OC are coming from the
object. These incident rays are reflected from the mirror and reflected rays emerge as AB and CD. If
reflected rays AB and CD are extended behind the mirror, they appear to meet at point ‘I’. This is
that point where image is formed.

Characteristics of image formed by a plane mirror:

(i) Obtained Image is always formed behind the mirror.
(ii) Obtained image is virtual, which means it cannot be obtained on screen.
(iii) Image is erect and laterally inverted.
(iv) Image size is equal to object size.
(v) Distance of object from the mirror = Distance of image from the mirror.
Distance of the object and image is the same from the mirror.

Lateral inversion is the effect produced by a plane mirror in which the right side of the image
appears left and the left appears right. For eg. our left hand will appear as right and vice versa.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Regular and Diffused Reflection: [Link]

(i) Regular Reflection: When a beam of parallel light rays is incident on a smooth and plane
surface, the reflected rays will also be parallel. This type of reflection is called Regular Reflection.
The reflection from a plane mirror and reflection from still water are examples of regular reflection.

Regular reflection

2. Diffused and Irregular Reflection:

When the reflecting surface is rough, the parallel rays falling on it are reflected in different
direction. Such as reflection is known as diffuse or irregular reflection. For example, reflection of
light from the wall of a room or a tree etc.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Multiple Images:
(i) When two or more mirrors are placed at an angle to one another, multiple images of an object
can be formed.
(ii) For example in the hair dresser shop two mirrors are placed opposite to each other. If a man sits
between them, his image is formed in both the mirrors. The image in one mirror would act as an
object for another mirror and this sequence would continue. This will give result in the formation of
multiple images.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
(iii) The number of images formed depends on the angle between the two mirrors. This can be
calculated by using the following formula:

Number of Images =

If the angle between the mirrors = 30⁰, Number of images = 11

If the angle between the mirrors = 45⁰, Number of images = 7

If the angle between the mirrors = 0⁰, Number of images = Infinite

(iv) When the two mirrors are kept opposite and parallel to each other, we will get infinite number of
images formed.

Uses: * Multiple reflections are used in periscopes. Periscopes are used in submarines, war tanks
and by soldiers in bunkers to see objects that are not visible directly.

Periscope

* In a kaleidoscope, beautiful patterns are formed due to multiple reflections.

Kaleidoscope:
(i) The idea of number of images formed by mirrors placed at an angle to one another is used in a
kaleidoscope to make numerous beautiful patterns.
(ii) To make a kaleidoscope, get three rectangular mirror strips about 15 cm long and 4 cm wide
each. Join them together to form a prism.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
(iii) Make sure that the tube is slightly longer than the mirror strips.

(iv)Close one end of the tube by a cardboard disc having a hole in the centre, through which you
can see [Fig.(b)].

(iv) To make the disc durable, paste a piece of transparent plastic sheet under the cardboard disc.

(iv) The other end, touching the mirrors, fix a circular plane glass plate [Fig. 16.12(c)].

(V) Place on this glass plate several small pieces of coloured glass (broken pieces of coloured
bangles).

(Vi) Close this end of the tube by a ground glass plate.

(Vii) Allow enough space for the colour pieces to move around. Your kaleidoscope is ready.

Kaleidoscope

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Human Eye:
We see objects only when light coming from objects enters our eyes. Eye is one of our most
important sense organs which gives us the sense of vision.

Structure of Human Eye:

1. Cornea: It is located at the front portion of the eye. It is transparent window that bulges
outwards and responsible for the maximum refraction (bending) of the light that enters the eye.

2. Iris: It is a thin circular, colour part structure. It works like the shutter of eye. It controls the
amount of light entering the eye.

3. Pupil: It is an adjustable circular opening that is located at the centre of the iris. Light enters
into eye through the pupil. When the light amount is high, iris contracts and allows less light into
the eye. When the light amount is low, iris dilates and allows more light into the eye.

4. Lens: It is made of a jelly transparent material and is a biconvex structure. It is present behind
the pupil. The size and thickness of the lens change as per the distance of an object by the ciliary
muscle.

5. Retina: The screen of eye is referred to as retina because the light ray comes through the pupil
and passes through the lens and converges on a screen called retina. Retina is the light – sensitive
inner lining of the back of the eye.
Retina contains several nerve cells. There are two kinds of cells
(i) Cone cells, which are sensitive to bright light and sense colour.
(ii)Rods cells, which are sensitive to dim light.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
6. Optic Nerve: It is located at the back of the eye. Optic nerves are the bundle of over one million
nerve fibres that carry visual messages from the retina to the brain.

7. Blind Spot: It is the small region where the optic nerve and the retina meet. It has no sensory
cells. Hence no image is formed at this spot on the retina.

Working of Eye:
(i) Light reflects off from the objects and enters the eyeball through a transparent layer of tissue at
the front of the called the cornea.
(ii) The cornea bends the light rays through the pupil- the dark opening in the center of the colored
portion of the eye.
(iii) The adjusted light passes through the eye lens.
(iv) The eye lens converges all the light rays on the retina and images is formed on retina real, small
and inverted.
(v) The retina converts these light rays into electrical signals that are relayed to the brain via the
optic nerve. The brain processes the information it receives, so that in turn, we can see.

Persistence of Vision:
(i) The impression of an image does not vanish immediately from the retina. An image persists there
for about 1/16th of a second. This feature is called persistence of vision.
(ii) If still images of a moving object are flashed on the eye at a rate faster than 16 per second, then
the eye perceives this object as moving.
Examples: Due to this persistence of vision, when we see many still images in a sequence, they give
the illusion of moving images. Movies and animation are made by exploiting this property of the
human eye.

Sunlight - white or coloured

 The sun is the biggest source of light on the earth.

 The sunlight is white in colour but the white light consists of seven colours
namely VIBGYOR (violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red).

 All these colours mixed together and form the white light. However,the seven colours
can split and be seen as separate colours rather than a single white light.

 This phenomenon of the splitting of light into its constituents is called

Dispersion of light.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Figure 11 Dispersion of Light

Examples of dispersion of light:

 Formation of rainbow due to the dispersion of white light through the water droplets.

 Passing of Sunlight through a prism

 Dispersion of light through the soap Bubbles

 Dispersion of light on the CDs

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

The vision may decrease with age:

 Normally a person can see distant and nearby objects through the eyes.

 A person with normal eyes can read most comfortable at a distance of 25cm. However,
this distance can decrease with age.

 Sometimes with old age, the lens of the eye can become cloudy or foggy. This condition
is called cataract which results in loss of vision.

 However, this defect can be rectified by removing the old lens from the eye and
inserting an artificial lens at that place.

How to take care of the eyes?

1. One should go for a regular eye checkup.

2. Wear spectacles if the eyesight is found weak.

3. Always study or watch TV in a sufficient light. Excess or insufficient light both can lead
to problems. Insufficient light can cause strain and leads to a headache.

4. Do not look at the sharp source of light like the sun directly. Excess of light can damage
the eyes.

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. If dust enters into the eye one should not rub them and rather wash them straightway.

6. Maintain a normal distance while reading or watching TV.

7. Take a balanced diet to ensure that you get the right nutrients.

LINKS FOR REFERENCE:

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]

[Link]
358023604633611667

[Link]
358023604633611667

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 INTERNATIONAL INDIAN SCHOOL, DAMMAM
BOYS MIDDLE SECTION
E-LEARNING NOTES - 2021-22
CLASS: VIII SUBJECT: GENERAL SCIENCE
PREPARED BY: MAMTA SAHOO
______________________________________________________________________________________________________

EXERCISE
I. DEFINE: (i) Light (ii) Reflection of light (iii) Incident ray (iv) Reflected ray (v) Angle of incidence
(vi) Angle of reflection (vii) Normal (viii) Lateral inversion (ix) Dispersion of light
II. Answer the following:
1. State the two laws of reflection of light. Also show the diagram of reflection of light.
2. What are the characteristics of image formed by a plane mirror?
3. Differentiate between:
(a) Luminous and non luminous objects with 2 examples from each.
(b) Regular and irregular reflection with the diagram.
4. Mention the number of images formed in the following cases:
(a) When two plane mirrors are kept at right angles to each other.
(b) When two plane mirrors are kept parallel to each other.
( c) When two plane mirrors are kept at 45⁰ to each other.
5. Write the principle behind the working of periscope and kaleidoscope.
6. Write the uses of periscope and kaleidoscope.
7. What is multiple reflection?
8. Mention the function of the following:
(i) Iris (ii) Cornea (iii) Pupil (iv) Retina (v) Cilliary muscle
9. What kind of lens is present in human eyes? Write its function.
10. What is blind spot?
[Link] long does impression of an image present on retina?
[Link] is the comfortable distance at which we can read with normal eye?
[Link] is cataract formed?
[Link] the steps taken to take care of our eyes.
15. Compare the sight of a night bird with day light bird.
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