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Understanding How Light Changes Direction
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Understanding How Light Changes Direction
Tahnee and Oliver are helping Evie at a vet clinic. They notice that light behaves differently when it travels through air, water and glass. Use the clues and your science knowledge to solve the questions. Remember: light usually travels in straight lines through one material, but it can change direction when it passes into a different material.
Investigate the clues
Use the ideas in the introduction and the descriptions in each question to answer them.
1.A toy fish in an aquarium seems to be in a different position when viewed through the glass and water. What is the best explanation?
- Light changes direction as it passes between water, glass and air.
- The fish swims faster when someone looks at it.
- Glass makes the fish move to another part of the tank.
2.Complete the sentence: When light changes direction as it moves from one material into another, this is called .
3.True or false? Light travelling through a uniform material, such as still air, usually travels in straight lines.
TrueFalse
4.Match each observation on the left to the most likely explanation on the right.
- A straw looks bent where it enters a glass of water.
- A shadow appears behind a solid object.
- A clear window lets you see objects outside.
- Light travels in straight lines and is blocked by the object.
- Light passes through the transparent glass.
- Light changes direction as it passes between materials.
5.A horizontal water surface separates the air above it from the water below it. Which is the boundary between the two materials: the horizontal water surface or an imaginary vertical line drawn through the point where a light ray meets the surface?
6.An imaginary line called the normal is drawn through the point where a light ray meets a horizontal water surface. Is the normal at right angles to the water surface, or along the surface?
- At right angles to the surface
- Along the surface
- Curved to follow the ray
7.Explain why a pencil partly submerged in a clear glass of water can look bent, even though the pencil is straight.
8.Choose the one option that names both things that can happen when light changes direction as it passes from one material into another.
- Its direction can change and its speed can change.
- It always stops and disappears.
- It always changes colour and becomes brighter.
9.Evie shines a torch through a clear plastic ruler. The beam enters the ruler and then leaves it. What might happen to the beam at each boundary?
10.Oliver says, “Light always bends towards the normal when it passes between materials.” Is his statement a safe rule for every boundary crossing? Explain briefly.
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