12/12/24, 3:08 PM Light Class 7 Notes Science Chapter 13 Free PDF

Chapter Notes: Light

Have you noticed sunlight shining into a room through a small hole, or the bright lights from a car at
night? These beams of light help us see and show how light travels. Let's learn more about how light
works and why it’s important!

What is light?
Light is a form of energy that allows us to see the world around us. It travels in straight lines
and can move through different mediums like air, water, and glass.

Light Travels Along a Straight line

This characteristic of light can be explained by a Candle and Pipe Experiment.
Look at the candle through a straight pipe. The light from the candle can travel directly through
the straight pipe to your eyes. So, you can see the candle flame clearly.

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If you bend the pipe, the light from the candle can't reach your eyes because it hits the sides of
the pipe and gets blocked. That's why you can't see the flame.

Conclusion: So, when light's path is blocked or bent, you won't be able to see the light source, just
like with the candle and the bent pipe.

Reflection of Light
When light hits a shiny surface like a stainless-steel plate, steel spoon, or even the surface of
water, it can change direction. This is known as reflection.

You might have seen pictures of trees or buildings reflected in water.

Any smooth or shiny surface can act like a mirror.
When light hits a mirror, it changes its direction, creating what we know as light reflection.

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Reflection of light from a

mirror

The mirror changes the direction of light according to the angle at which light of torch hits the
mirror.

Try yourself: When light hits a mirror, what does it create?

a. Reflection

b. Refraction

c. Absorption

d. Dispersion

View Solution

Image and Object

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Look at the flame of the candle in the mirror, when it is placed in front of a mirror.
You will see what seems like another candle placed behind the mirror.
The candle that you see behind the mirror is actually the image of the original candle
formed by the mirror.
The original candle is called the object.
Now, move the candle to different positions in front of the mirror.
Observe how the image changes each time you move the candle.

Image of a candle in a plane mirror

If we increase or decrease the distance between the object and the mirror, the
distance between the image and the mirror also increases or decreases, respectively.
However, the size of the image formed on the mirror can vary with respect to the
distance between the object and the mirror.
If the distance between the object and the mirror increases, the size of the image
decreases and vice-versa.

Erect: An image is said to be erect if the image is formed the same side up as that of the object.
Inverted: The image will be called Inverted if it is formed upside down compared to the object.

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Inverted image of a candle

Right of Left!
When you stand in front of a mirror and raise your left hand, it looks like the person in the mirror is
raising their right hand. If you touch your right ear, it seems like the person in the mirror is touching
their left ear.
This happens because the mirror switches left and right sides. So, what looks like left in the mirror is
actually right, and what looks like right is actually left.

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Left- Right Inversion

Interesting Fact: Why is the word ‘AMBULANCE’ painted on an ambulance left-right

inverted?
The left-right reversal of images in a mirror causes the word "ambulance" to be easily readable
for the driver of a vehicle ahead when seen in the rearview mirror.

left-right reversal of
images

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Try yourself: When an object is placed in front of a mirror, the image formed is:

a. Inverted

b. Erect

c. Reversed

d. Sideways

View Solution

Playing With Spherical Mirrors

Spherical mirrors are mirrors that have a curved surface, like a part of a sphere (a round
object like a ball).

Types of Spherical Mirrors:

1. Concave Mirror:
If the reflecting surface of a spherical mirror is concave, it is called a concave mirror.

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A concave mirror curves inward, like the inside of a spoon. It can make things look bigger
when you bring them close to the mirror.
Reflecting surface is concave
2. Convex Mirror:
If the reflecting surface is convex, then it is a convex mirror.
A convex mirror curves outward, like the back of a spoon. It makes things look smaller and
shows a wider area.
Reflecting surface is convex.

Where You See Them:

Concave mirrors are used in things like makeup mirrors and car headlights because they focus
light, used by dentists to see things up close, in torches. They can make things look bigger or
smaller and can create real or virtual images.
Convex mirrors are used as side mirrors on cars because they give a wider view of the road.

Types of Mirrors

If the reflecting surface of a spherical mirror is concave, it is called a concave mirror.

If the reflecting surface is convex, then it is a convex mirror.

Types of Images
There are two types of images formed

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1. Real Image: Images that can be captured on a screen are known as real images. For example, in a
camera, images are real and can be captured on the negative, which acts as a screen.
2. Virtual Image: The image formed by a plane mirror cannot be captured on a screen and is called a
virtual image.

Real and Virtual Image

Images Formed by Lens

A lens is a piece of transparent material, usually glass or plastic, that bends light to help us see
things more clearly. Lenses are used in many everyday objects like spectacles (glasses),
telescopes (to see faraway things), and microscopes (to see very tiny things).

Depending upon its shape a lens can be categorized as:

1. Convex Lens - A Convex Lens is curved outwards. It is thicker in the center and narrows down at
the edges. It merges the light rays passing through it at a certain point. Therefore, it is also called a
Converging Lens.
2. Concave Lens - A Concave Lens is curved inwards. It has wider edges and a thinner center. It
reflects back the light that travels through it in different directions. Therefore, it is also called a
Diverging Lens.

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Lens

Converging and Diverging Lens

Applications of Lenses
Lenses are used in magnifying glasses, peep holes, cameras, bioscopes, binoculars, telescopes,
microscopes and projectors. A refracting telescope uses a concave mirror and a convex lens.

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Image by a convex lens for object placed at different distance from it

Virtual image by convex lens Image by a concave lens

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Try yourself: Which type of mirror curves inward and can make things look bigger when
brought close to the mirror?

a. Convex Mirror

b. Concave Mirror

c. Plane Mirror

d. Spherical Mirror

View Solution

Sunlight - White or Colored?

A band of colors extending from violet to red is a rainbow. A rainbow is formed by the
reflection of the sun's rays through raindrops.

Rainbow
A rainbow is a natural event where sunlight is reflected by water droplets in the air. It forms an arc in
the sky and showcases seven distinct colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
This occurrence shows that sunlight is actually composed of seven different colored lights, which
become visible through reflection.

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Just like how the soap bubbles and CDs show different colors when light hits them, sunlight is made
up of many colors that can be separated and seen. This is why we can create rainbows or see colorful
reflections!
Note: If you divide a disk into 7 parts and paint each part with a different color of the rainbow, when
you spin the disk really fast in bright light, the colors all blend together, and the disk looks white.
Let's understand this with interesting activity through a Prism:
Take a glass prism.
Allow a narrow beam of sunlight to pass through a small hole in the window of a dark room to
fall on one face of the prism.
The light bends when it passes through the prism.
Now allow the light coming out of the other face of the prism to fall on a white sheet of paper or
a white wall.
Different component colors of white light bend differently, and so the constituent colors can be
seen separately.
This indicates that sunlight is made up of seven colors. Sunlight is referred to as white light,
which means that white light comprises seven colors.

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Newton's Disc A prism splits a beam of sunlight into seven colors

When you divide a disk into seven sections and paint each with a different color of the
rainbow, you get what's known as Newton's disc. When you spin the disc quickly in daylight,
the colors blend together, giving the appearance of a whitish color.

Newton's Disc

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Try yourself: What happens when a beam of sunlight passes through a glass prism?

a. The light remains the same color.

b. The light disappears.

c. The light bends and splits into seven colors.

d. The light turns black.

View Solution

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