The Human Eye and the Colourful World
THE HUMAN EYE
❑ The human eye is one of the most valuable and
sensitive sense organs
❑ It enables us to see the wonderful world and the
colour around us
Human eye
❑ Lens- It is a transparaent lens made of jelly like material
❑ Aqueous humour- The back surface of the eye
❑ Pupil- The small hole in the iris
❑ Iris-The colored diaphragm between the cornea and lens
❑ Cornea-The transparent spherical membrane covering the
front of eye
❑ Ciliary muscles- These muscles hold the lens in position
❑ Vitreous humour- The space between eye lens and retina is
filled with another liquid
❑ Retina- The back surface of the eye
❑ Optic nerves- The nerve that carries message from the retina
to the brain
Power of Accomodation
❑ The ability of the eye lens to adjust its focal length
❑ When muscles are relaxed, the lens becomes thin. Its focal length
increases, this enables us to see distant object clearly
❑ When muscles contract , the lens becomes thick,its focal length
decreases , this enables us to see nearby objects clearly
Far point
The farthest point up to which a short sighted eye can see clearly
For a normal eye , The far point is at infinity
Far point
The farthest point up to which a short sighted eye can see clearly
For a normal eye , The far point is at infinity
Near point
❑ The nearest point upto which a long sighted eye can see
clearly
❑ For a normal eye , the near point is about 25cm from the eye
Near point
❑ The nearest point upto which a long sighted eye
can see clearly
❑ For a normal eye , the near point is about 25cm
from the eye
Defects of vision and their correction
❑ MAYOPIA
❑ HYPERMETROPIA
❑ PRESBYOPIA
❑ ASTIGMATISM
Mayopia /Near sightedness
❑ A person with myopia can see nearby
objects clearly but cannot see distant
objects distinctly
❑ Image form between retina
❑ It is due to
1. Excessive curvature of eye ball
2. Elongation of eye ball
Hypermetropia/Long sightedness/Far sightedness
A person with hypermetropia can see distant objects clearly
but cannot see nearby objects distinctly.
❑ It is due to
1. Decrease in the power of eye lens
1. Shortening of eye ball
Presbyopia
❑ It is a kind of defect in human eye which occurs due to ageing
❑ It is due to
1. Decrease in flexibility of eye lens
2. Gradual weaking of ciliary muscles
CATARACT
❑ When a lens of people at old age become milky
and cloudy
❑ This causes partial or complete loss of vision
Astigmatism
❑ When a person cant focus on both horizontal and
vertical lines at the same time. So the person can
see objects clearly in one plane
❑ It is due to irregular shaped cornea or distorted
lens
REFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH PRISM
PRISM- It has two triangular bases and three rectangular
lateral surfaces . these surfaces are inclined to eachother
Monochromatic light- It contains light with a single
wavelength
REFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH PRISM
Dispersion
❑ The splitting of white light into its constituent seven
colours on passing through glass prism
❑ The band of seven colours so obtained is called visible
spectrum.
❑ RED - Least deviate
❑ Violet - Maximum deviate
Recombination of spectrum
• Sir Isaac newton was the
first to use a glass prism to
obtain the spectrum of
sunlight
• This experiment gave an
idea that sunlight is made
up of seven colours which is
referred as white light
Atmospheric Refraction
❑ The refraction of light caused by the earth atmosphere
Rainbow
❑ A rainbow is formed due to dispersion
of light by tiny droplets of water
which act as a prism
❑ rainbow is always formed in the
direction opposite to that of sun
Twinkling of stars
❑ Due to atmospheric refraction
❑ Gradually changing refractive index
❑ The amount of intensity of starlight
increases /decreases this causes twinkling of
stars
❑ It seems to be higher in the sky as actual
they appear
Advanced sunrise and delayed sun set
❑ Due to the atmospheric refraction
❑ Earth’s atmosphere is not uniform ,
air layers has different densities
and refractive indices
Scattering of light
❑ It is a phenomenon of change in the
direction of light on striking particles like
an atom ,molecule, dust particles
❑ It was first studied by the scientist
Rayleigh
The intensity of light depends on two factors
1. Wavelength of light
Light of short wavelength is scattered more than the light of long
wavelength
2.Size of scattering particles
Small particles scatter light of shorter wavelength whereas large
particles scatter light of longer wavelength
Tyndall effect
❑ Scattering of a beam of light by a
medium
❑ Containing small suspended
particles.
Sky is blue
• Due to scattering of light in the earth’s
atmosphere.
• Blue light has short wavelength
• These particles have size smaller than
the wavelength of the visible light
Red colour of sun at sunrise/sunset
❑ Light from the sun has to travel the longest
distance of atmosphere to reach the observer
❑ Blue light of scattered wavelength is scattered
more and lost, while the red light of long
wavelength is scattered little
❑ Light from the sun near the horizon passes
through thicker layers and large distance in
earth’s atmosphere before reaching our eyes.
