HUMAN EYE AND COLOURFUL WORLD

VERY SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [1 Mark]

1. Which phenomenon is responsible for making the path of light visible?

Answer. Tyndall effect.
2. What is Tyndall effect?
Answer. The phenomenon of scattering of light by the colloidal particles is called Tyndall effect.
3. Give an example of optical phenomena which occurs in nature due to atmospheric
refraction.
Answer. Twinkling of stars.
4. Give an example of a phenomenon where Tyndall effect can be observed.
Answer. When a fine beam of sunlight enters a room containing suspended particles of dust, the
path of the beam of light is visible. It is due to the scattering of light (Tyndall effect).
5. Name the type of particles which acts as a prism in the formation of rainbow in the sky.
Answer. Water droplets present in the atmosphere.
6. What is the cause of dispersion of white light on passing through a prism?
Answer. The refractive index of the material of a prism is different for different colours of light
as different colours have different speeds in the material of a prism. Also, prism has non-parallel
surfaces.
7. Name the atmospheric phenomenon due to which the sun can be seen above the horizon
about two minutes before actual sunrise.
Answer. Atmospheric refraction.
8. Why is red colour selected for danger signal lights?
Answer. Wavelength of red colour is more and so, it is least scattered. It can be easily seen
through a large distance.
9. Why do different components of white light deviate through different angles when passing
through a triangular glass prism?
Answer. Due to change in refractive index offered by the medium.
10. What will be the colour of the sky, when it is observed from a place in the absence of any
atmosphere? Why?
Answer. Sky appears dark.
Reason: In the absence of atmosphere, there would have been no scattering of sunlight at all.
11. The sky appears dark instead of blue to an astronaut. State its reason.
Answer. The sky appears dark to the astronaut as scattering does not take place at very high
altitude due to the absence of atmosphere.

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [I] [2 Marks]

12. Define the term dispersion of white light. State the colour which bends (i) the least and (ii)
the most while passing through a glass prism.
Answer. The splitting up of white light into its component colours is called dispersion. The
colour which bends (i) the least is red, and (ii) the most is violet, while passing / through a glass
prism.

13. What is meant by spectrum of white light? How can we recombine the components of white
light after a prism has separated them? Draw a diagram to illustrate it.
Answer. The coloured pattern VIBGYOR formed by a prism by splitting the incident white light
is called a spectrum. By having two prisms, inverted to each other, one can recombine the light to

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 get white light again.

14. Explain why do the planets not twinkle but the stars twinkle.
Answer. Planets being of larger size can be taken as a collection of large number of point-sized
objects/sources of light, which nullify the twinkling effect of each other.
Due to varying conditions of atmosphere, starlight undergoes multiple refraction and its path
varying slightly while passing through the atmosphere. Therefore, the apparent position of star
fluctuates and amount of light entering the eye changing continuously. The star sometimes appear
brighter and some other time, it appears fainter. This causes twinkling of star.
15. Give reasons:
(i) The extent of deviation of a ray of light on passing through a glass prism depends on its
colour.
(ii) Lights of red colour are used for danger signals.
Answer. (i) Refractive index of a medium is different for different colours of light.
(ii) Due to large wavelength, red colour is least scattered and travel to large distance.

16. A star appears slightly higher (above) than its actual position in the sky. Illustrate it with
the help of a labelled diagram.
Answer. The gradual change in the refractive index of different layers of the atmosphere due to
the varying conditions of it causes atmospheric refraction. When starlight enters the atmosphere,
it gets refracted continuously. The higher level of air acts as a rarer medium while the dense air
near the surface of earth acts as a denser medium. So, the atmosphere bends the starlight towards
the normal. As a result, the apparent position of star is slightly different from its actual position.
Thus, star appears slightly higher (above) than its actual position in the sky.

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17. Draw a ray diagram to show the refraction of light through a glass prism. Mark on it (a) the
incident ray. (b) the emergent ray and (c) the angle of deviation.
Answer. i-incident angle, r – refraction angle, δ – angle of deviation, e – angle of emergence.

18. A star sometimes appears brighter and some other times fainter. What is this effect called?
State the reason for this effect.
Answer. This effect is called Twinkling effect.
Reason: It is due to atmospheric refraction of starlight. The atmosphere has varying layers. The
gradual change in the refractive index of different layers of atmosphere causes atmospheric
refraction and starlight undergoes multiple refraction. So, the fluctuation in the position of star
occurs continuously due to the changing amount of light entering the eye. The star sometimes
appears brighter and at some other times, it appears fainter. This causes twinkling of star.
19. What is the colour of the clear sky during day time? Give reason for it.
Answer. Clear sky appears blue.
Reason: When sunlight passes through the atmosphere having the molecules of air and other fine
particles, whose size is smaller than the wavelength of visible light, these molecules and particles
scatter the blue colour more strongly than the other colours of spectrum as the wavelength of blue
colour is more. This scattered blue light enters our eye. So, the colour of sky appears blue to us
during day time.
20. What is a spectrum? Why do different coloured rays deviate differently on passing through
a glass prism?
Answer. The band of coloured component of a light beam is called its spectrum. The colour
sequence is given by the acronym V I B G Y O R — Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange
and Red.
The speed of light of different colours in a medium like glass is different. Varying speeds for
different colours lead to different refractive indices for different colours. It has been observed that
the refractive index of glass for violet colour is more than that for red colour. All the colours
present in white light refract through different angles and hence, emerge out from the prism with
different directions and become distinct.

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS [II] [3 Mark]

21. (a) What is meant by scattering of light?

(b) State the factors on which the colour of scattered light perceived by us depends.
Answer. (a) Scattering of Light: The phenomenon of the change in the direction of propagation of
light caused by the large number of molecules, such as smoke, tiny water droplets, suspended
particles of dust and molecules of air present in the earth’s atmosphere, is called scattering of
light.
(b) The colour of the scattered light perceived by us depends on the size of the particles, i.e.
(i) Very fine particles scatter mainly blue colour.
(ii) Large-sized particles scatter the light of longer wavelengths.

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 (iii) Enough larger particles scatter the light which may appear white.

22. Four friends went to a forest for a picnic. When they were moving around the forest, they
saw that the light was filtering from the leaves of the trees. The path of the light beam
becomes visible to all of them. They wondered how this happen so. Suddenly, they saw two
hunters. They immediately went to the nearest police station to complain about them. Police
immediately with their force went to the forest to arrest those people.
(a) Name the effect they observed in the canopy of the dense forest and explain it.
(b) Where can you see this effect other than the forest?
(c) What can you predict about the nature and awareness of these four friends?
Answer. (a) They observed Tyndall effect in the canopy of the dense forest. The phenomenon of
scattering of light by colloidal particles, present in the medium due to which the path of the beam
of the light becomes visible, is called Tyndall effect.
(b) When a beam of sunlight enters a dusty room through a small hole, then its path becomes
visible to us.
(c) Concern for nature, concern and affection with forest animals, helping nature.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTION [5 Marks]

23. (a) What is dispersion of white light? What is the cause of such dispersion? Draw a diagram
to show the dispersion of white light by a glass prism.
(b) A glass prism is able to produce a spectrum when white light passes through it but a
glass slab does not produce any spectrum. Explain why is it so?
Answer. (a) The splitting up of white light into its constituent colours is called dispersion. The
colour sequence is given by the acronym V I B G Y O R – Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow,
Orange and Red. This colour pattern is called a spectrum.

Dispersion takes place because the speed of light of different colours through a glass prism is
different and so, refractive index, therefore, each colour bends (refracts) through different angles
with respect to incident ray as they pass through a prism. The red colour has maximum speed in
glass prism. So, it is least deviated while the violet colour has minimum speed so its deviation is
maximum. Thus, the ray of each colour emerges along different paths and becomes distinct.
(b) For dispersion, the two refracting surfaces must be inclined to each other as in case of prism.
In rectangular glass slab, the refracting surfaces are parallel to each other. So, dispersion cannot
occur. This is due to fact that the rectangular glass slab can be considered as equivalent of two
identical prisms in inverted position placed in an inverted position with respect to each other. The
deviation and dispersion produced by the second inverted prism is equal and opposite to that
produced by the first prism.
Therefore, there will neither be dispersion, nor deviation, Le. second inverted prism recombines
the , colour to give a white light parallel to the incident ray again and will undergo only lateral
displacement. Hence, rectangular glass slab cannot produce any spectrum.

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24. (i) Draw a figure which shows the arrangement for observing the phenomenon of scattering
of light in the laboratory.
(ii) What colours would you observe in the experiment? Why?
Answer. (i) An arrangement for observing the scattering of light in the laboratory is as shown
below.
(ii) (a) On the screen, first orange red colour and then bright crimson red colour patch is observed.
(b) From the other three sides of colloidal solution of sulphur in a glass tank (T), blue colour is
observed.

This is because the very fine colloidal sulphur particles scatter away the blue colour from the path
of beam and only red colour (least scattered) of the beam of white light reaches the screen through
the solution.
25. What is atmospheric refraction? Use this phenomenon to explain the following natural
events.
(a) Twinkling of stars
(b) Advanced sunrise and delayed sunset.
Draw diagrams to illustrate your answers.
Answer. Atmospheric Refraction: The refraction of light caused by the earth’s atmosphere due
to gradual change in the refractive indices of its different layers by the varying conditions of it, is
called atmospheric refraction.
(a) Twinkling of stars
Refer Q. No. 36
(b) Advanced sunrise and delayed sunset
The sun is visible 2 minutes before sunrise and 2 minutes after sunset because of atmospheric
refraction. This can be explained as below.
The figure shows the actual position of the sun S at the time of sunrise or sunset, just below the
horizon while the apparent position S′, above the horizon as appear to us.

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