Science, Unit-6; Light and Solar system
6.1 Reflection
1. Plane mirrors are flat mirrors.
2. We call the reflection of your face in the mirror your mirror image.
3. The arriving ray of light is called the incident ray. The ray of light that reflects off the
mirror is called the reflected ray. The normal is a line drawn at right angles (90°) to the
surface of the mirror. The angles that each ray makes with the normal are the same.
4. What pattern did you notice about the angle the incident ray arrived at the mirror and
the angle the reflected ray left the mirror? (Ans: The angles were the same.)
5. Write a conclusion about how light changes direction when it is reflected from a plane
mirror. (Ans: When a ray of light reflects off a plane mirror it makes the same angle
with the normal as it did when it arrived at the mirror (or similar).
Periscope
1. What is a periscope? (Ans: A periscope is a device that uses mirrors to allow you to see
over the top of something in front of you.)
2. Draw a diagram to show the mirrors in your periscope and how light travels through it
to your eyes. Label the incident and reflected rays.
3. Why did you have to angle the mirrors at 45°? (Ans: Because the reflected ray from the
top mirror has to go straight down the periscope to the bottom mirror.)
4. Light travels from the Sun to the person on the other side of the wall. Light reflects off
the person to the top mirror of the periscope. Light reflects off the top mirror and travels
down the periscope to the bottom mirror. Light reflects off the bottom mirror into your
eye.
5. How could you have changed the design of the periscope to allow you to see over a
higher wall? (Ans: By making the periscope taller.)
Refraction
1. What is refraction ? (Ans: Refraction is the bending of light.)
2. A medium is a material such as water, glass or air.
3. An optical illusion is something our eyes see but which is not real.
4. Which mediums does the light pass through between the pencil and
your eyes? ( ans: The light passes through water, glass and air.)
5. Light from the pencil travels through the water in the glass and then
bends when it passes through the glass to the air.
6. Write a conclusion to explain why the pencil appeared to bend, using
your scientific knowledge of refraction? (Ans: The pencil appeared to be
bent because the light refracted when it moved from the water through the glass to the
air.)
Lenses
1. A lens is a transparent substance with at least one curved surface.
2. Our eyes have lenses in them.
3. A convex lens makes things look bigger.
4. Light rays pass through the lens and bend inward and meet or converge at a point just
beyond the lens. This point where the rays converge is called the focal point.
5. Convex lenses are used to make eyeglasses, projectors, microscopes, binoculars and
telescopes.
