Lesson 4:

Propagation of Light
(Reflection and
Refraction) as Explained
by the Wave and Particle
Models
What is true of light, is it a wave or
a flow of extremely small particles?
Dual Property of Light (A Wave and a
Particle)
 Light can behave both as a wave and as a particle. As particles, they travel in
straight lines, thus, producing shadows when they hit an obstruction. The photo-
electric effect is also an evidence that light behaves as particles. When light with
enough energy falls or hits a metal, electrons are dislodged or knocked off from it to
produce a positive (+) metal surface. The amount of light energy (known as photon)
contains a fixed amount of energy or quantum that depends on the frequency of the
light.
 Light also acts as a wave. It has the ability to diffract or bend
around an object. Diffraction involves a change in direction of
waves when they pass from an opening or around obstacles along
their path. Refraction happens when light waves change direction
as they travel through materials of different refractive indices, say
water and air. Light waves also undergo Interference, the
phenomenon that occurs when two waves meet while traveling
along the same medium.
Diffraction Refraction
Reflection and Refraction

Reflection and refraction are phenomena that

are well-explained by the behaviors of light. When
emitted, light waves spread outward. Upon hitting a
smooth surface like a mirror, they bounce back
according to their angles of incidence, creating a
reversed image.
 Light can also behave as a stream of particles. When
these particles hit a smooth surface, they bounce off,
reversing the order in the beam and creating a reversed
image.
Additionally, light undergoes refraction when moving
between two media with different refractive indices. In this
case, particles change direction due to a force acting
perpendicular to the interface, altering their speed and
bending the light. Reflection can produce various types of
images based on the surface encountered.
Usually, the study on images is carried out using mirrors as the
reflecting surface. Mirrors can be plane, concave, or convex.
Plane mirrors consist of perfectly flat surface with no
distortions and reflect 100% of the light that strikes them back at a
predictable angle. Concave and convex mirrors have reflective
surfaces that curve inward and outward, respectively.
 Concave mirrors are known as converging mirrors because light
is focused at a point as it strikes and reflects back from the reflecting
surface.
Convex mirrors are diverging mirrors because as light strikes and
bounces back it spreads over a required region.
Concave and convex mirrors are parts of spherical mirrors with
reflecting surfaces going inward and outward, respectively. Convex mirrors
always produce images that are located behind the mirror, virtual, upright,
and reduced in size.
 As the object distance from the mirror is decreased, the image distance is also decreased
and the image size is increased. Concave mirrors produce images that depend on the location of
the object. At several locations different characteristics of images can be observed. The images
formed can be located somewhere between the center of curvature (C) and the focal point (F), at
C, beyond C, and somewhere on the opposite side of the mirror. At times, no images are formed
by the mirror. Images can be inverted or upright, smaller, bigger, or the same size as the object,
and real or virtual.
Propagation of Light
Light is an electromagnetic radiation that travels through space as vibrating
or oscillating waves. It is composed of alternating electric and magnetic fields that
oscillate perpendicular to each other to the direction of propagation. It travels at a
speed of 3.0 × 108 m/s through a vacuum.
The electromagnetic spectrum (EM) is composed of waves with varying
frequencies, thus, carrying different amounts of energy. The figure below shows
the EM spectrum and the corresponding wavelengths of each wave.
 The wavelength is inversely proportional to the amount of
energy or frequency it carries. Longer wavelengths have lower
frequencies than those with shorter wavelengths. The frequency is
directly proportional to the amount of energy carried by a particular
wave. Part of this EM is the visible light (known as white light) which
is seen by our naked eye. Light wave travels at a speed of 3.0 × 108
m/s through a vacuum.
 The speed of light changes when it passes
through different materials, which can be measured
by the index of refraction. This index is the ratio of
the speed of light in a vacuum (c) to its speed in a
medium (v).
Light travels slower in materials with a higher
index of refraction due to increased scattering. For
example, light moves slower in water than in air
because water scatters more light.
When light propagates, it vibrates at different
frequencies, and this can lead to dispersion when it
strikes water droplets or a prism. This dispersion
splits white light into the colors of the spectrum: ROY-
G-BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and
 Smooth surfaces reflect light at equal angles, creating clear images. Light absorption
happens when a light wave's frequency matches the frequency of electrons in atoms, converting light
to heat, as in photosynthesis.
Materials absorb light selectively based on these frequencies. If the frequencies don’t
match, the light is reflected or transmitted. When light strikes an object, electrons vibrate and reemit
light. In transparent objects, these vibrations pass through. The color we see depends on the light
that is reflected: an object appears black if it absorbs all visible light and white if it reflects all colors.
 Light waves scatter when they encounter mixtures of particles along their
path. The size of these particles affects how light is scattered. Smaller particles
scatter shorter wavelengths, like blue light, while larger particles scatter longer
wavelengths, like red and orange.
This is why the sky appears blue during the day—blue light is scattered
more than red. At sunrise and sunset, the sun is lower on the horizon, and light
travels through more air molecules. This denser atmosphere scatters more blue
and violet light out of our line of sight, allowing us to see the warmer colors:
yellow, orange, and red.