L-10 HUMAN EYE AND THE COLOURFUL WORLD

The human eye is the sense organ which helps us to see the colourful world around us.

The human eye is like a camera.

Its lens system forms an image on a light sensitive screen called RETINA.

The eyeball is almost spherical in shape with a diameter of about 2.3cm.

Draw and label the parts of human eye

The human eye has the following parts:

1. Cornea: it is a thin transparent bulge at the front surface of the eyeball.

Function: Light enters the eye through cornea. Most of the refraction for the light rays
entering the occur at the outer surface of the cornea. So, it acts as a primary lens.

2. Iris: a dark-coloured diaphragm behind the cornea with a hole in its centre called
pupil.
Function: It controls the size of the pupil.

3. Pupil: small opening in the iris through which light enters the eye.
Function: It regulates and controls the amount of light entering the eye with the help
of iris.

4. Eye lens: it is a convex lens made of transparent jelly like material and is located
just behind the pupil. It is held in position by the ciliary muscles. When the lens
becomes thin, the focal length increases. When the lens becomes thick, the
focal length decreases.
Function: Eye lens focuses on the light rays and forms a real and inverted image on
the retina.

5. Ciliary muscles: It is a thin muscular structure which holds eye lens in its position
 Function: Ciliary muscles change the focus of the eye lens in order to focus the image
of distant object as well as nearby object on the retina. When we look at distant
objects, ciliary muscles are relaxed, making the eye lens thinner. As a result, the focal
length increases, and this enables us to see distant objects. When we look at nearby
objects, the ciliary muscles contract, hence eye lens becomes thicker. As a result,
focal length of eye lens decreases, enabling us to see nearby objects clearly.

6. Retina: it is the light sensitive screen inside the screen on which an image is
formed. It contains light sensitive cells called rods and cones.
Power of accommodation

The ability of the eye to focus both near and distant objects by adjusting its focal
length with the help of ciliary muscles is called the power of accommodation of the
eye.

Near point of the eye: - The minimum distance at which object can be seen distinctly
without strain is called the near point or least distance of distinct vision. For a normal
eye it is 25cm.

Far point of the eye: - The farthest distance up to which the eye can see objects
clearly is called the far point of the eye. For a normal eye it is infinity.

What happens to the image distance of the eye when we increase distance of the
object from the eye?

In human eye, the image distance (distance between lens and retina) is fixed.
Therefore, no change happens when we increase object distance.

DEFECTS OF VISION AND THEIR CORRECTIONS.

When the eye loses it’s power of accommodation ,the person cannot see the objects
clearly. There are three major refractive defects of vision.

1.MYOPIA

This is also known as nearsightedness. A person with myopia can see nearby objects
clearly but cannot see distant objects distinctly. The far point is nearer than infinity. Image
of a distant object is formed in front of the retina
Causes:- 1.Excessive curvature of the eye lens

2.Elongation of the eye ball.

Correction: A concave lens of suitable power is used for correction.

2. HYPERMETROPIA

Hypermetropia is also known as far- sightedness. A person with hypermetropia can see
distant objects clearly but cannot see nearby objects distinctly. Image of nearby objects is
formed behind the retina.

Causes:- 1.Focal length of the eye lens is too long

2. The eyeball has become too small

Correction: A convex lens of suitable power is used for correction.

3.PRESBYOPIA

progressive form of farsightedness that affect most people by old age. The power of
accommodation of the eye decreases with ageing. Most people find their near point
receding gradually.

Causes: Gradual weakening of ciliary muscles and diminishing flexibility of the eye lens.

Correction:- It can be corrected using a convex lens.

Some people who suffer from myopia develop hypermetropia too as they age. This can be
corrected using BIFOCAL LENS. The common bifocal lenses consist of both concave and
convex lenses. The upper portion consists of concave lens to facilitate the vision of
faraway objects. The lower part is a convex lens to facilitate the vision of nearby objects.

CATARACT: The medical condition in which the eye lens of a person progressively
becomes cloudy ( or even opaque), resulting in blurred vision is called cataract.

Correction:- The opaque lens is removed surgically and a new artificial lens is inserted in
its place.
NUMERICALS

1. A person cannot see objects nearer than 75 cms from his eyes, while a person with
normal vision can see objects upto 25 cms from his eyes. Find the nature, the focal
length and the power of the correcting lens used for the defective vision. Name the
defect.
2. A person with myopic eye is not able to see objects beyond 2 m from him.
Determine the nature, focal length and power of the lens used to correct the defect

REFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH A TRIANGULAR

PRISM
• It has two triangular bases and three rectangular lateral
surfaces. These surfaces are inclined to each other.
• When a ray of light passes through a glass prism it refracts
twice at air-glass interface as well as at the glass air interface.
• At the first face PQ the ray of light bends towards the normal,
whereas at the other face RS, ray of light bends away from the
normal.
• Since the two refracting surfaces of the prism are not parallel,
the emergent ray and the incident ray are not parallel to one
another. In this case, the ray of light passing through the prism
is found to bend towards the base of the prism.
• The angle between the incident ray and emergent ray is
called ANGLE OF DEVIATION.
• The angle between its two lateral faces is called ANGLE
OF PRISM.
DISPERSION OF LIGHT
The phenomenon of splitting of white light into seven constituent
colors on passing through a glass prism is known as dispersion of
light.

• Different colors deviate through different angles with respect

to incident ray as they pass through the prism.
• The red light deviates the least and violet light maximum.
• The band of seven colours obtained after dispersion is called
spectrum.

REASON FOR DISPERSION

1. The refractive index of the glass is different for different colours
& hence they refract at different angles. Violet has the shortest
wavelength, so it is most deviated and red has the longest
wavelength so the least deviated.
2. The two refractive surfaces are not parallel.
 3. RECOMBINATION OF SPECTRUM OF LIGHT

The components of white light can be recombined to give back white

light.
The first prism P1 splits the white light into seven colors and the
second prism P2 is in inverted position w.r.t to P1, again recombines
all the colors to produce white light.
It happens because the dispersion in the first prism is reversed by the
second prism.

RAINBOW FORMATION:

It is a natural spectrum appearing in the sky after a rain shower.

A rainbow is always formed in the direction opposite to that of Sun.
Tiny water droplets present in the atmosphere act as prisms and
disperse sunlight. They refract and disperse the incident sunlight
and reflect it internally and finally refract it again when it comes out
of the droplet. Due to dispersion of light and internal reflection
different colors reach our eyes.
Two conditions necessary to observe a rainbow:
1. It is seen in the sky only after a rain shower.
2. The position of sun should be always behind the observer.
ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION
When light passes through the different layers of the atmosphere
refraction takes place.
The refraction of light caused by earth’s atmosphere having air layers
of varying optical densities is called atmospheric refraction .
The air in the atmosphere is not at the same temperature.
• The refractive index of the atmosphere gradually increases as
we come down towards the earth.
• The refractive index depends on various factors such as
temperature, composition of air, dust particles etc.
• All these factors keep fluctuating which causes the fluctuation
in the refractive index of the atmosphere.

Q. Why do stars twinkle?

The twinkling of a star is due to atmospheric refraction of starlight.
Since stars are very distant, they are considered as point sized
sources of light.
The star light on entering the earth’s atmosphere undergoes
refraction due to the difference in the refractive indices of the various
layers of the atmosphere.
Air higher up in the sky is rarer but near the earth’s surface is
denser. Therefore, the star light bends towards normal. So, the
apparent position is higher than the actual position.
This apparent position keeps on changing slightly, since the physical
conditions of the earth’s atmosphere are not stationary.
So, the star light entering the eye fluctuates with time. Due to this, at
times the star appears brighter and at some other times fainter.
Q. Why planets do not twinkle?

This is because they are of larger size and much closer to the Earth so
it can be taken as a collection of large number of point
sized(extended) source of light. The dimming effect of one part of the
planet is nullified by the brighter effect in its other parts. On the
whole planets remains brighter and does not appear to twinkle

ADVANCE SUNRISE AND DELAYED SUNSET

Light from the sun on entering the earth’s atmosphere passes from
rarer to denser layers bending towards the normal every time.
Therefore the sun appears to be raised while it is actually below the
horizon. We can see the apparent rising sun about 2 min before it is
actually above the horizon.
Light from the sun on entering earth’s atmosphere passes from rarer
to denser layers bends towards the normal every time. Therefore the
sun appears raised while it is actually below the horizon. So we can
see still the sun 2 minutes even after the sun has set below the horizon

So time from sunrise to sunset is lengthened by about by 2 + 2= 4min

because of atmospheric refraction.
Q. Sun appears bigger during sunrise and sunset. Give reason.
The apparent flattening of the Sun’s disc at sunset and sunrise is also
due to the atmospheric refraction.
SCATTERING OF LIGHT
Light is scattered when it falls on various types of suspended particles in its
path. The spreading of light by particles in a medium is termed as
scattering of light.

TYNDALL EFFECT
The scattering of light by colloidal particles in the medium and the path of
light becomes visible. This is known as Tyndall effect.

SOME NATURAL APPLICATIONS OF TYNDALL EFFECT

1. When sunlight enters a dusty room through a small hole, the
scattering of light by the dust particles in the air make the
particles visible.
2. When sunlight passes through the canopy of dense forest the
tiny water droplets in the mist scatter light and the path of light
becomes visible.

FACTORS ON WHICH THE COLOUR OF SCATTERED

LIGHT DEPENDS:
1. The colour of scattered light depends on the size of the
suspended particles in the medium such as dust, water
droplets etc.
• Very fine particles scatter mainly blue light of
shorter wavelength.
• Large size particles scatter red light of longer wavelength.
• If the size of particle is large enough, then the scattered
light may appear even white.
2. Wave length: The rate of scattering depends the wavelength of
the light.
Blue light has shorter wavelength , therefore it scatters much more
than the red light which has longer wave length.
Q. Why does the sky appear blue?
The particles in the air have size smaller than the wavelength of
visible light. They scatter blue light of shorter wavelength more strongly
than red light. Therefore the scattered blue light enters our eye and the sky
appears blue.

Q. Why does the sky appears dark instead of blue to an astronaut?

Since there is no atmosphere in the outer space, scattering of light does
not take place.Therefore the sky appears dark to an astronaut.

Q. Why are danger signals lights red in colour?

Danger signals are red in colour as red colour has greater
wavelength and it is least scattered by fog or smoke. It can be seen in the
same colour for a long distance.