Notes - Colourful World-1

What is Dispersion ?
Splitting up of White light into 07 different colors, when white light is passed through a transparent
medium (like Glass Prism) is called Dispersion.
Note:
Red Colour of Light has Longer Wave Length, Travels the Fast in any medium & Bends the Least.
Violet or blue Colour of Light has Shorter WaveLength, Travels Slow in any medium & Bends the Most.
What is Spectrum ?
Band of coloured components of light are called Spectrum. Eg - VIBGYOR
What causes Dispersion ?
White light is the combination of millions of colours, but 7 colors are more prominent in appearence
through dispertion.
When Light falls on a Prism, Ray of light changes medium (from air to Glass) , Hence, different colors of
Light bend at different angles, due to the change in speed w.r.t other Colour of light inside Prism.
Red light travels faster in Glass, So it bends the Least inside Glass, While Violet colour, Travels
relatively Slow inside the Glass, So it bends the most.
Hence, Different rays of different color, Emerge along different paths. This causes dispersion of light
Recombination of Spectrum to give White Light :
Here 2 prisms are used together, Firstly Sunlight light as Ray is made to fall on the Prism, This makes
white light to form spectrum of 7 colors outside the prism,
Later this Spectrum is made to fall on Another prism which is held in inverted position, this leads to
emergence of White Sunlight again from 2nd Prism.
Rainbow is formed after a Rain, in a direction opposite to that of a Sun.
• After rain , there are many tiny water droplets suspended in Air, When Sunlight falls on these
droplets(Acts as a Prism), Sunrays gets refracted first, then it gets internally Reflected and then
Refracted again from the Droplet to theAir medium.
Due to this phenomenon, we could able to see a Spectrum in the form of a Rainbow.
Total Internal Reflection
When a light passes from Denser to Rarer medium and angle of incidence is greater than critical angle,
the light will reflect in the denser medium. This is known as Total Internal Reflection.
Condition for Total Internal Reflection
 Light should pass from denser to rarer medium

 Angle of incidence should be greater than the Critical angle.
Flickering Background in the Fire
When we place an object background to the fire, it flickers (appear to move slightly).
It is because of Refraction of light in Air.
Air above fire is very hot (optically rarer), While air away from fire is cooler (optically denser) , When
we place object over Fire, Light rays appear to move from optically denser air to optically rarer air
This causes Refraction of light and object appears to waver or move
Atmospheric Refraction
Refraction of Light due to different layers of earth's atmosphere is called Atmospheric Refraction
Eg: Twinkling of Stars, Stars appear higher than they actually are, Advance Sunrise and Delayed
Sunset, Flattening of Sun's Disk, etc.
Reason for Star Twinkling
Planets Donot Twinkle Why ?
Stars appear Higher, than they Actually are ?
Star light comes from Vaccum in Space, to Air in Earth's atmosphere
As we move towards the Earth, Air becomes more optically denser, Refractive index also increases as we
move closer to the Earth.
When star light enters the earth atmosphere, they bend & appears that they are coming from higher
point, than they actually are.
Why does the Sky appear Blue ?
Blue Color of Sunlight Scatter the most, because it has a Shorter Wave Length.
Red Color of light, Scattered the Least, because it has a Longer Wave Length.
What is the Color of Scattered Light ?
It depends upon whether the light Reflects from large particles or small particles
• Particles of Dust and Water are Larger in Size
Hence when sunlight falls on them, whole of light gets reflected (or scattered) in different directions,
Hence scattered light appears to be white in color
Eg - Cloud appears white, because, Cloud Scatters all Colors of light
• Air Molecules are Smaller in Size
Hence when sunlight falls on them, only blue color of light gets scattered as it has Shorter wavelength,
Hence, Scattered light appears to be blue in color
Why does Sun appear Reddish at Sunrise and Sunset ?
During Afternoon ?
Sun is directly above us, Light rays from Sun take lesser time to reach us
Hence there is less scattering of blue light, So Sun appears to be white
Advanced Sun Rise:

Tyndall Effect:
Scattering of the Light in mixtures, due to the favorable particle Size, Helps to see the Path of
visible Light in the mixture.. This Phenomenon is known as Tyndall Effect. This effect is most
likely to be seen in Colloids, due to the favorable particle size..
Why Anger or Traffic Signs are made in Red colour ?
Long WaveLength Red Colour Scatters the Least in Air or even in Fog & Smoke. So Red Colour travel
longer distance without Scattering. So, Danger signs are made in Red Colour.
Why Colour of Sky appears Blue on a clear day ?
Upper layer of Atmosphere contains very fine particles of Water vapours and Gases. These particles are
more effective in Scattering of Light of shorter wavelength Blue, So, the Sky appears Blue.
Why Appearance of Sky to an Astronaut in the Space ?
The Sky would appear dark to an Astronaut in the space as scattering is not very prominent at such high
Altitude, due to absence of Particles.
Why Clouds appear White ?
Clouds are formed by water vapours. Water vapours condense to form water droplets due to larger size
of droplets, all colours of light are scattered and clouds appear white.

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What is Dispersion ?

Band of coloured components of light are called Spectrum. Eg - VIBGYOR

What causes Dispersion ?

Recombination of Spectrum to give White Light :

Total Internal Reflection

Condition for Total Internal Reflection

 Light should pass from denser to rarer medium

Flickering Background in the Fire

It is because of Refraction of light in Air.

This causes Refraction of light and object appears to waver or move

Planets Donot Twinkle Why ?

Stars appear Higher, than they Actually are ?

Star light comes from Vaccum in Space, to Air in Earth's atmosphere

Why does the Sky appear Blue ?

• Particles of Dust and Water are Larger in Size

Eg - Cloud appears white, because, Cloud Scatters all Colors of light

• Air Molecules are Smaller in Size

Why does Sun appear Reddish at Sunrise and Sunset ?

Hence there is less scattering of blue light, So Sun appears to be white

Advanced Sun Rise:

Why Anger or Traffic Signs are made in Red colour ?

Why Colour of Sky appears Blue on a clear day ?

Why Appearance of Sky to an Astronaut in the Space ?

Why Clouds appear White ?

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