7.

HEAT, LIGHT AND SOUND

CONCEPT MAP - HEAT
o
HEAT

comes from causes transmitted by

SOURCES TEMPERATURE
sun/fire/hot objects CONDUCTION RADIATION

causes measured by
CONVECTION
limited by

THERMAL
EXPANSION THERMOMETERS INSULATION
solids/liquids/gases
THERMOSTATS
used in

7.1 INTRODUCING HEAT, LIGHT AND SOUND

Aims:
To encourage students to bring to mind their every day experiences of heat, light and sound and to lead
them to think about the nature of these three phenomena.
To ensure students are aware of some important sources of heat, light and sound.
To ensure students are aware of the importance of heat, light and sound in their daily lives.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of familiar, everyday experiences with heat, light and sound focussing
mainly on their sources and their importance to us.

Answers:
Q1. Physics studies many similar things we cannot touch including heat, light and sound - other things
studied in physics include force, energy, electricity and magnetism.
Q2. Everyday human activities which use heat include keeping warm, cooking, and heating water for
washing ourselves and our clothing. Heat is also used in industry in the manufacture of many important
materials from charcoal to iron and other metals, and from plastics to artificial fertilisers and medicines.
Q3. No! To make any speech sound at all the voice box has to vibrate. Different parts of the mouth also
have to be moved to make the various different sounds required for speech..
Q4. Answers to this should reflect the experiences and imagination of each student. Thinking about this
should bring home to all students the important part which light and sound play in our lives.

7.2 HEAT - CONDUCTION AND INSULATION

Aims:
To inform students that heat moves in three different ways, to introduce them to the phenomena of
conduction and (thermal) insulation, and to bring to mind examples that are already familiar to them.

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 To introduce students to simple activities to demonstrate and compare conduction and insulation by
different materials, and to help them interpret these.
To make students aware of some examples and applications of conduction and insulation in their daily
lives.

Activities:
Introduction of the idea that heat moves in a number of different ways.
Demonstration and discussion of familiar experiences that illustrate conduction and insulation.
Practical activities (or demonstrations) to show and compare conduction and insulation with different
materials (see module).

Answers:
Q1. (i) metals, (ii) most other materials, especially those that trap air (eg fabrics).
Q2. Examples include: Conduction - the engine of a car or truck overheats if it is not cooled by cooling
fins or a radiator which are made of metal; these conduct heat away into the air or into water. Insulation
- fur on mammals and feathers on birds are good insulators and help to keep them warm; insulation in
vacuum flasks help to keep liquids hot (or cold).
Q3. Metals are much better conductors than wood. If you touch hot metal the heat is conducted quickly
to your hand so it feels hot, but if you touch equally hot wood the heat is conducted to your hand only
slowly so it does not feel as hot as the metal. If you touch cold metal, the heat is conducted quickly
away form you hand so it feels very cold. With equally cold wood the heat is conducted from your hand
much more slowly so it feels much less cold.

7.3 HEAT - CONVECTION

Aims:
To introduce students to the phenomenon of convection, and bring to mind examples that are already
familiar to them.
To introduce students to simple activities to demonstrate convection and help them interpret these.
To make students aware of examples and applications of convection in their daily lives.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of familiar, everyday experiences that illustrate convection.
Practical activities (or demonstrations) to show convection (see students module).

Answers:
Q1. (i) Convection refers to the upward movement of fluids (liquids and gases) when they are heated.
(ii) Convection currents refer to the circulation in fluids caused by convection. As the hot fluid rises,
cooler fluid comes in to takes its place and in turn is heated and rises. As the heated fluid cools, it sinks
again and a circulation is set up.
Q2. Three ways in which convection effects weather are mentioned in the text. These are the formation
of clouds when water vapour is carried up into the atmosphere by convection (this is the first part of the
water cycle), and the creation of land breezes and sea breezes. Cyclones are also caused by convection.

7.4 HEAT - RADIATION

Aims:
To introduce students to phenomena associated with heat radiation, including emission, reflection and
absorption, and to bring to mind and interpret examples that are already familiar to them.
To introduce students to simple activities to compare the absorption and emission of heat by different
surfaces and to help them interpret these.
To make students aware of examples and applications of the radiation, reflection and absorption of heat
in their daily lives.

Activities:

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 Demonstration and discussion of familiar, everyday experiences that illustrate phenomena associated
with the radiation/emission, absorption and reflection of radiant heat.
Demonstrations to compare the absorption and emission of heat by different surfaces as shown in the
module. (A gas ring, camping gas stove, or similar heater would be suitable for heating black and shiny
metal plates; a medium sized black rock could be heated as a source of radiant heat).

Answers:
Q1. Conduction, convection and radiation. In conduction the heat itself moves through a solid, usually a
metal. In convection it is a hot fluid that moves upwards, carrying the heat with it. In radiation it is heat
rays that travel through empty space or through air.
Q2. To get the most heat, paint the light bulb black! Dark colours radiate heat best.
Q3. (i) Heat rays from the fire can not reach you because they travel in straight lines - they can not bend
around things that get in the way. (ii) The shiny screen is there to reflect heat rays towards the front of
the fire. (iii) In hot climates, people paint their houses white to reflect the suns rays and thus keep their
houses cooler.

7.5 HEAT - THERMAL EXPANSION

Aims:
To bring to students minds, and to review, some familiar effects of heat.
To introduce students to the idea that solids, liquids and gases expand on heating.
To introduce students to simple activities to demonstrate the thermal expansion of solids, liquids and
gases and to help them interpret these.
To make students aware of some everyday implications and applications of thermal expansion.

Activities:
Discussion of familiar, everyday experiences that illustrate thermal expansion and contraction.
Demonstrations of thermal expansion in gases, liquids and solids. (If a ball and ring or similar apparatus
is not available use any other suitable activity.)

Answers:
Q1. If the temperature in the room rises, the air in the flask expands and pushes the liquid in the tube
down. The reverse happens if the temperature falls. This crude thermometer has many faults. It is
inconvenient to use and move around. It is also very inaccurate because the level of the water in the
tube is affected by atmospheric pressure as well as the volume of air in the flask.
Q2. There are gaps so that the bridge can expand in hot weather.
Q3. The wires sag because they get longer when they get hot.

7.6 HEAT - THERMOMETERS AND THERMOSTATS

Aims:
To remind students about thermometers as instruments for measuring temperature and to explain how a
simple mercury-in-glass thermometer works.
To remind students about the values of a number of familiar everyday temperatures.
To make students aware that there are different kinds of thermometers.
To introduce students to the idea of a thermostat and make them aware of a number of familiar devices
that use thermostats.
To describe and explain the use of a bimetallic strip in a thermostat.

Activities:
Discussion of students familiar, everyday knowledge and experience of thermometers.
Demonstrations of all available types of thermometers.
Discussion of thermostats.

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 Demonstrations, if possible, of thermostats in action in domestic appliances. If possible, take a suitable
appliance apart and look at the thermostat.
If required by local syllabuses, practice in converting between Celsius and Fahrenheit.

Answers:
Q1. (i) A thermometer measures temperature (or hotness). (ii) Nurses or doctors use a clinical
thermometer to take a patient's temperature. (iii) A normal temperature is the temperature of a healthy
person - that is 37 oC.
Q2. (i) 32 oF, 86 oF, 176 oF (ii) 10 oC, 20 oC, 100 oC (iii) The answer will vary according to the area - but
in very general terms over 30 oC is regarded as quite hot and under 10 oC as quite cold.
Q3. (i) A thermostat is a device for switching something on and off at a particular temperature.
(ii) A bimetallic strip of copper and iron bends towards the iron when it is heated. That is because the
copper expands more than the iron when they are heated. (Study the diagram in the module.)

CONCEPT MAP - LIGHT

LIGHT

comes from subject to

SOURCES SCATTERING
sun/fire/lamps etc
travels in subject to subject to

STRAIGHT LINE PATH REFLECTION

scattered
can be split into causes exemplified in governed by light
enters

SPECTRUM SHADOWS PLANE LAWS OF

MIRROR REFLECTION

leads to
lead to

COLOUR REFRACTION EYE

IMAGE IN
PLANE MIRROR

leads to applied in has a part has parts

LENSES
DISPLACEMENT NAMED PARTS
OF IMAGE & their functions
may be

CONCAVE LENS CONVEX LENS

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makes

IMAGES

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7.7 LIGHT - LIGHT AND SHADOWS

Aims:
To make students aware that light travels at a huge speed in straight lines and help them to understand
how this gives rise to shadows.
To make students familiar with the words transparent, opaque and translucent and to make them aware
that we see opaque objects when light scattered from them reaches our eyes.
To engage students interest in light through simple activities with shadows and a pin hole camera.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of familiar, everyday experiences with light and shadows and explanation
of these in terms of (i) the scattering of light by opaque objects, (ii) the straight line propagation of light.
Practical activities with light and shadows as described in the module. Try to make at least one pinhole
camera - it is very easy and students will be impressed! Use an empty box or food tin with one end
removed. Punch a small hole in the middle of the sealed end with a small nail. Paint the inside black or
darken it with soot. Cover the open end with translucent paper (tracing or grease-proof or air letter
paper is best, but thin copy paper will do). Point the pinhole at a bright window and look at the paper
screen. An inverted image of the view through the window will appear on the screen. If the image is
very dark, enlarge the hole a little; if it is light and blurred the hole is too big.
If some students make a simple sundial, get them to undertake a long term investigation. They should
check how both the angle and the length of the shadow vary with (i) time of day and (ii) time of year.

Answers:
Q1. (i) Light is scattered when it bounces off something in all directions. (ii) We see things when light
scattered from them enters our eyes. (iii) It is sometimes hard to see a clean sheet of glass because glass
is transparent - the light passes straight through it and is not scattered into our eyes. (iv) Translucent
glass scatters some light but also lets some through. It is used for example in the windows of toilets
where we want to let in light without allowing people to look in
Q2. 162,000,000 km 300,000 km/sec = 540 seconds (9 minutes).
Q3. Look at the diagram of the pinhole camera in the textbook. Notice that light coming through the pin
hole and into the camera from high up, finishes at the bottom of the translucent paper screen. And light
from low down finishes at the top. So everything on the paper screen is upside down!

7.8 LIGHT - REFLECTION AND MIRRORS

Aims:
To introduce students to the idea of reflection at a plane (smooth) surface, including a simple version of
the law of reflection and the associated terminology as given in the module.
To make students aware of the characteristics of the image in a plane mirror and to introduce them to
ray diagrams as a way of explaining and understanding such images.
To introduce students to the idea of a virtual, as opposed to a real, image.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of students' everyday experiences with reflection and mirrors, and
introduction of a simple version of the law of reflection at a plane surface.
Practical activities with mirrors (a torch would also be useful).
Discussion of the formation and nature of an image in a plane mirror.
Drawing a ray diagram to show the formation of a virtual image in a plane mirror.

Answers:
Q1. (i) An incident ray is a ray that is going in to a mirror (or anything else). (ii) A normal is a line at
right angles to a surface. (iii) If angle of incidence is 50 o, then angle of reflection is 50 o.
Q2. The ray X bounces straight back because the angle of incidence is zero, therefore the angle of
reflection must also be zero!

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 Q3. The image in a pinhole camera is (i) on the screen of the camera, (ii) smaller than the object
(diminished), (iii) upside down, and (iv) real. The image in a plane mirror is (i) behind the mirror, (ii)
the same size as the object, (iii) laterally inverted and (iv) virtual.

7.9 LIGHT - REFRACTION

Aims:
To introduce students to the idea of refraction as the bending of light when it passes between air and a
denser transparent medium.
To make students aware of some of the effects of simple refraction, in particular the displacement of
images of objects viewed through water.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of students' everyday experiences with refraction.
Demonstrations or practical activities that illustrate refraction.
Drawing ray diagrams to show some familiar effects of refraction.

Answers:
Q1. (i) Reflection of light is when light bounces off a plane surface at a definite angle (ii) Refraction is
the bending of light when it passes from one transparent medium to another.
Q2. (i) When light travels from water to air it is bent away from the normal. (ii) When light travels from
air to glass it is bent towards the normal.
Q3. The image seen by the fisherman in the picture is virtual (because the rays of light do not actually
pass through the image).
Q4. Some of the devices which use lenses are: magnifying glass, camera, slide and film projectors,
microscope, telescope, binoculars, spectacles and the human eye itself!

7.10 LIGHT - DISPERSION AND COLOUR

Aims:
To introduce students to the ideas of the dispersion of light, and of light as the source of colour.
To inform students about primary and secondary colours and to show them how the absorption and
scattering of light by different objects leads to the colours we see in the world around us.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of everyday experiences with dispersion and with colour in general.
Practical activities which illustrate the formation and recombination of spectra. Additional
demonstrations with coloured lights if available.
Drawing ray diagrams to illustrate simple refraction in a prism.

Answers:
Q1. (i) Dispersion is the splitting of white light into its component colours. (ii) The spectrum of white
light is the range of different colours into which it can be split. (iii) The primary colours are red, blue
and green - all other colours can be make by combining light of these three colours.
Q2. (i) Yellow - see colour triangle. (ii) Red - a yellow object scatters red and green light but no green
light is available. (ii) Black! - a blue object absorbs both green and red light.

7.11 LIGHT - LENSES

Aims:
To introduce students to convex and concave lenses as objects that refract light in special ways.

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 To make students familiar with the main properties of convex and concave lenses, including the
different kinds of images formed in given circumstances.
To show students how to draw and interpret simple ray diagrams that illustrate the formation of images
by lenses.
To help students understand how lenses are used in magnifying glasses, cameras and projectors, and to
inform them of some other uses of lenses.

Activities:
Showing different students lenses and discussing anything they already know about them.
Demonstrations and practical activities with lenses (a torch would be useful). These should include (i)
looking at convex and concave lenses and looking at things through them, (ii) showing the convergence
and divergence of a beam of parallel light, (iii) using a convex lens to obtain an image of a distant
object on a sheet of paper, and measuring its focal length.
Drawing ray diagrams to show the different ways in which lenses can form images and practice in
interpreting these.
Demonstration and discussion of some familiar uses of lenses.

Answers:
Q1. The image on the paper is diminished, inverted (upside down) and real.
Q2. (i) A convex lens is thicker in the middle than at the edges. It causes a parallel beam of light to
converge and can form real images. (ii) A concave lens causes a parallel beam of light to diverge. The
point from which the light appears to come is called the principal focus of the lens. The focal length of
the lens is the distance from the lens to the principal focus. (iii) The principal axis of a lens is a straight
line passing through the centre of the lens and the principal focus. (iv) A projector is a machine that
throws an image onto a screen. (v) An image is real if the light forming the image actually passes
through it - a real image can be caught on a screen. An image that is magnified is larger than the object
from which it was created, and an image that is inverted is upside down as compared to the object from
which it was created.
Q3. (i - iv) Cameras, projectors, microscopes and telescopes all use convex lenses. Some kinds of
telescopes also use concave lenses. (v) Glasses use both concave and convex lenses.
Q4. There are several good tests. If the lens is definitely fatter in the middle it is convex, if it is thinner
in the middle it is concave. If you can't tell, look through the lens at some writing - the convex lens will
magnify the writing but the concave lens will diminish it. Finally, if you are still not sure, you could try
to use the lens to focus an image of the view from a bright window onto a sheet of paper - a convex lens
will form a clear image on the paper but a concave lens will not.

7.12 LIGHT - THE HUMAN EYE

Aims:
To inform students about some of the important parts of the human eye and their functions.
To make students aware of the nature of long and short sight and to help them understand how these can
be corrected by convex and concave lenses respectively.
To make students aware of some of the advantages of having two eyes.

Activities:
Looking at eyes and discussion of students existing knowledge about them.
Looking closely at one another's eyes, identifying externally visible parts, and observing the activity of
the iris in closing down or opening up the student in different light conditions.
Drawing and labelling a cross section through the human eye and discussing the functions of each part.
Discussion of long and short sightedness and their correction, and of binocular vision.

Answers:
Q1. (i) The eye lashes, eyelids and tears all help to keep the cornea clean. (ii) The size of the pupil
controls the amount of light entering the eye - and the size of the pupil is controlled by the iris. (iii) The
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 lens focuses an image on the retina. (iv) Light sensitive cells detect the image on the retina. (v) The
optic nerve passes the image to the brain.
Q2. Short sight means being unable to see objects that are far away as clearly as normal. People with
short sight need glasses with concave lenses.
Q3. (i) A mouse has eyes in the side of its head so it has a very wide field of vision. This helps it to look
out for predators who might want to eat it! (ii) An owl's eyes are in the front of its head. This helps it to
judge the exact position of its prey (such as the mouse!) when it is hunting. (iii) Human beings use their
hands to do many complicated things. Two eyes in the front of the head help them to do this because
they can judge the position and shape of things very well.

CONCEPT MAP - SOUND

SOUND

comes from caused by transmitted by reflected as has a

SOURCES VIBRATIONS AIR ECHO

weather, animals, machines

cause
described by detected by used to measure

FREQUENCY AMPLITUDE EAR SPEED

(PITCH) (LOUDN of sound

may create has parts

MUSIC NOISE NAMED PARTS

& their functions

7.13 SOUND - SOUND AND VIBRATION

Aims:
To help students identify familiar sources of sound and to introduce them to the idea that sound is
caused by vibration.
To make students aware that air is involved in the transmission of sound vibrations.
To identify and locate the ear as a sound detector and the larynx as the source of most human sounds.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of students' everyday experiences with both sound and vibration.
Simple practical activities with sounds and vibrating objects (including students' own larynxes).

Answers:

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 Q1. Sound vibrations travel outwards from their source through the air (like ripples spreading on the
surface of a pond).
Q2. The highest frequency most people can hear is between 10,000 and 20,000 vibrations per second;
the lowest is about 20 vibrations per second.
Q3. The two vocal chords in our larynx vibrate when we speak.

7.14 SOUND THE SPEED OF SOUND

Aims:
To make students aware that sound vibrations need a medium to travel through, that this medium is
usually air, but that sound can also travel through water and through solid objects.
To make students aware of the nature of echoes.
To inform students about the speed of sound in air and to compare this with the very much greater speed
of light.

Activities:
Discussion of students' experiences with echoes and other familiar phenomena which relate to the
relatively slow transmission of sound in air. (In addition to storms as mentioned in the text, students
may have watched distant events and noticed the delay in hearing the associated sounds).
Simple practical activity to measure the approximate speed of sound in air using an echo.
Simple practical activities involving sounds travelling through solid objects (such as a table).

Answers:
Q1. The speed of sound is affected by the medium is passes through. If it is travelling in air it is also
affected by wind and temperature.
Q2. When sound travels through air, the air vibrates as fast as it can. If anything tries to travel through
air even faster than this, the air can't easily get out of the way quickly enough! Because of this, it
requires a lot of extra force to make anything travel faster than the speed of sound. When anything does
manage to travel faster than sound, we say it has broken the sound barrier. When this happens, you hear
a 'sonic boom' as the air is forced out of the way. Military aircraft make a sonic boom when they break
the sound barrier, but a more familiar example is the loud 'crack' when the end of a long whip exceeds
the speed of sound.

7.15 SOUND - THE HUMAN EAR

Aims:
To inform students about important features of the ear and their functions.
To make students aware of middle ear problems created by pressure differences during flying and
diving, and of how these can usually be corrected.
To make students aware of some of the advantages of having two ears.

Activities:
Looking at ears and discussion of students' existing knowledge and experience of the ear and hearing.
Drawing and labelling a section through the human ear and discussing the functions of each part.
Demonstrations, or practical activities in small groups, to illustrate binaural hearing (as described in the
module).
Discussion of binaural hearing and the semi-circular canals and the sense of balance.

Answers:
Q1. Ear drum, ossicles (hammer or malleus, anvil or incus, stirrup or stapes), oval window, cochlea.
(The auditory nerve can be omitted as it passes on information about the vibrations, not the vibrations
themselves).
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 Q2. As a diver goes down, the pressure of the water around him or her increases. However, if the
Eustachian tube is not open, the pressure in the middle ear remains the same. This means the ear drum is
pushed inwards and this causes the pain.
7.16 SOUND PITCH AND VOLUME

Aims:
To inform students about pitch (measured in hertz) and volume (measured in decibels) and enable them
to correctly describe these aspects of sounds using the appropriate terminology.
To make students aware of the relationship of pitch to frequency of vibration, and of volume to
amplitude of vibration.
To show students how to adjust, in the required direction, the pitch and volume of sounds made by
vibrating strings and vibrating columns of air.

Activities:
Demonstration and discussion of pitch and volume starting from students' everyday experiences.
Simple demonstrations and/or practical activities using bottles partly filled with water, a bird whistle
and/or pan pipes, and a stringed instrument as described in the module.

Answers:
Q1. (i) High pitched sounds include whistles, squeaks, birds tweeting, children screaming, the high
notes in music and so on. (ii) Low pitched sounds include animals growling, heavy machines, the low
notes in music and so on. (iii) Middle pitches sounds include normal speech, the middle range of notes
in music and many everyday sounds around us that are not high or low!
Q2. (i) Many people could hear a whistle with a pitch of 15,000 Hz but some, especially older people,
could not. (ii) No one could hear a whistle with a pitch of 30,000 Hz, but dogs and bats and some other
animals could.
Q3. (i) High notes come from strings that are thinner and tighter and shorter than the rest. (ii) Low notes
come from strings that are thicker, less tight and longer. (iii) Loud notes are obtained by making bigger
vibrations, that is, by plucking the string harder.

7.17 SOUND - MUSIC AND NOISE

Aims:
To help students clarify their existing ideas about the distinction between music and noise.
To make students aware that particular frequencies are associated with particular musical notes.
To inform students about the decibel levels associated with common human activities or situations.
To inform students that a rise of 10 dB corresponds to a doubling of the volume of a sound.
To introduce students to the idea of noise pollution and to make them aware of the need to control
certain human activities which create noise which may distress or harm others.

Activities:
Discussion of the distinction between musical notes and noise.
Singing notes and musical scales.
Discussing musical instruments familiar to students, and looking at and playing any musical instruments
available (tuning forks with marked frequencies would also be useful).
Discussion of noise pollution, including examples familiar to students.

Answers:
Q1. (i) strings, (ii) strips of metal or wood, (iii) columns of air, (iv) strings, (v) a column of air.
Q2. (i) 8, (ii) 1024 Hz, (iii) 1048 Hz.
Q3. (i) The chart shows that the sound is 40 dB louder. The volume of sound is doubled for each 10 dB
which makes it 16 times louder (24) than it should be! (ii) This is a matter of opinion and might depend

53
on the circumstances, but most people would say yes - talking loudly in a library is a form of noise
pollution!

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