The Nature of Light&

the Principles of Ray

Dr. Entesar Ganash
 1. The Nature of Light
“Is light a wave or a particle?”

http://ecampus.matc.edu/mihalj/astronomy/test3/physics_of_light.htm
 1. The Nature of Light
“Is light a wave or a particle?”
The particle model of light (Newton’s Particle Model):

Light was considered to be a stream of particles.

Newton held that particles were emitted from a light
Source &they stimulated the sight sense upon entering
the eye.
Reflection and refraction can be explained. However,
light Interference phenomenon could not be explained.
 1. The Nature of Light
“Is light a wave or a particle?”
 The wave model of light:
This model was proposed that light might be some
type of wave motion.
To Huygens, light was a type of vibratory motion,
spreading out & generating a light sensation when
impinging on the eye.
In 1678, Huygens explained reflection & refraction on
the basis of this theory.
In 1801, Young showed light Interference phenomenon
In 1873, Maxwell stated that light was a type of high-frequency
electromagnetic wave.
In 1887, Hertz confirmed Maxwell’s theory.
 1. The Nature of Light
“Is light a wave or a particle?”

In 1905, Einstein explained the photoelectric effect using

quantization model, which assumes the energy of a light
wave is existed in particles called photons.
According to Einstein’s theory, the photon energy (E)
is proportional to the frequency (f) of the electromagnetic
wave (E= h f ), where h is Planck’s constant.
 1. The Nature of Light
“Is light a wave or a particle?”

Hence, “Is light a wave or a particle?” is an inappropriate question

Light must be regarded as having a dual nature.
Sometimes light acts like a wave, and other times it acts like a particle.
 2. The Ray Approximation in Ray Optics

 The field of ray optics (geometric optics) involves the study of the light propagation.

Geometric optics is an approximate treatment of light in which light are represented

as straight- line rays.

The direction of light ray propagation is changed

by refraction & reflection.

knowledge of geometrical optics is useful for the important

design & manufacture of magnifiers, microscopes & telescopes.

We can understand the formation of an image with

the fundamentals of ray optics.
 2. The Ray Approximation in Ray Optics
A plane wave of wavelength  is incident on a barrier in which there is an opening of diameter d.

A barrier Diffraction

The ray approximation is very useful for the study of mirrors, lenses, prisms, &
optical instruments
 3. Reflection
When a beam of light strikes such an interface, some light is scattered backward. This
phenomenon is known as reflection.

smooth surface any rough surface

Specular reflection, Diffuse reflection,

Reflection of light from a smooth Reflection from any rough
surface . The reflected rays are all surface. The reflected rays travel
parallel to one another. in random directions.
 Lows of Reflection

 At a planar mirror

Angle of incidence = Angle of reflection (the first part of Law of reflection)

Be carful the angles are always measured from the normal to the surface.

 The incident & reflected beams lie within a plane together with the surface normal.
(the second part of Law of reflection)
 4. Refraction
 At a planar dielectric surface such as glass plate, reflection & transmission occur at
the same time.

 Refraction is a phenomenon that describes the propagation of light through

interface, which separates 2 materials. The refraction changes the light’s direction of
travel.

The transmitted part of the incident beam is refracted.

Its change of direction can be explained by the refraction
index (n) that is defined by
c
n
v
where c is speed of the light in a vacuum ( c  2.998 10 m / s ) & v is the velocity of
8

light in a medium.
4. Refraction

If that were not the case,

energy would be piling up or
disappearing at the boundary.
 4. Refraction

Optically Dense medium has a higher n than thinner medium.

E.g. Water ( n  1.333 ) is optically more dense than air ( n  1.00029 ).

 Low of Refraction

A refracted ray lies in the plane of incidence and has a refracted angle ( t ) which is
related to incident angle(  i ) by Snell’s law or Law of refraction that is given as
 Low of Refraction

we can have three basic results:

a) nt  ni  t  i i.e. the refraction does not bend the light beam, which continues
moves in the same direction.
b) nt  ni  t  i i.e. the refraction bends the light beam toward the normal

c) nt  ni  t  i i.e. the refraction bends the light beam a way the normal.

Here the subscript

1 ≡i &2 ≡t
 5. Total Internal Reflection

Rays of light from point source (S) in glass incident on glass-air interface

ray a: part of ray light reflects at interface & the rest travels without change in
direction .
Rays b, c and d: there are both reflection and refraction at interface.
 5. Total Internal Reflection
Rays of light from point source (S) in glass incident on glass-air interface
Ray e : as the incident angle increases the refracted angle increases. When the
refracted ray reaches the interface that means the refracted angle is equal to 90 (relative
to a normal), then the incident angle is called the critical angle (  C ). This
Snell's law.

Rays f and g: here the incident angles larger than  C & there is no refracted ray &
all the light is reflected. This situation is known as total internal reflection.

The total internal reflection can

occur when the incident light in
medium has a high (n).
that means the light travels from
a dense medium to a thinner one
( here from glass to air).
 Total Internal Reflection

Optical Fibers

Losing of light intensity is very little

A cladding is a material that has a lower n than

the core.

Physicians use it to
1. inspect internal organs of the body
2. do surgery without making large incisions.
 6. Huygens’s Principle

All points on a given wave front are taken as point sources for the production
of spherical secondary waves, called wavelets, that propagate outward
through a medium with speeds characteristic of waves in that medium. After
some time interval has passed, the new position of the wave front is the surface
tangent to the wavelets.

The laws of reflection & refraction can be derived by using Huygens’s principle.

A plane wave A spherical wave

Radius of each circular arc is ct

Wavelets
 Fermat’s Principle of least time
Is s the principle that the path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that
can be traversed in the smallest time ( maximum velocity)

Snell’s law can be derived by using Fermat’s principle.

 8. Dispersion
The refraction index depends on the wavelength of the light i.e. n().
A light beam consists of rays of different wavelengths which will refracted
at different angles.
Chromatic Dispersion is the spreading of light according to its
wavelengths 
 8. Dispersion

the blue component always bends more than the red component.
Example
 References
•“ Physics for Scientists & Engineers with Modern Physics ” by Serway & Jewett 2014,ch 35.
-Ignore a measurements of the Speed of Light section,
- Ignore (example 1,4 &5)
-Ignore a rainbows

•“ Fundamental of Physics ” by Halliday, Resnick & Walker 2008 John Wiley & Sons, 8 ed.
•http://ecampus.matc.edu/mihalj/astronomy/test3/physics_of_light.htm
•http://sst2011-s208sci.blogspot.com/2011/08/applications-of-total-internal.html
•http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/Lesson-1/The-Direction-of-Bending
•http://cnx.org/content/m12895/latest/
•http://thewaythetruthandthelife.net/index/2_background/2-1_cosmological/2-1-12_child-
overview/sir_isaac_newton.htm
•http://turningmirrors.com/22-halo/halo-plot-dispersion_ice
•https://socratic.org/questions/what-are-some-examples-of-wave-particle-duality
•http://lightandcolor2.weebly.com/particle-model-of-light.html
•https://tomasbzdusek.wordpress.com/tag/light/
•http://darwinistsdilemma.com/materialism.html
•https://sites.ualberta.ca/~pogosyan/teaching/PHYS_130/FALL_2010/lectures/lect24/lecture2
4.html
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat%27s_principle