Light Travels

KEY IDEAS

  • Light illuminates objects
  • Light can come from a natural or artificial source
  • We detect light with our eyes

EXAMPLE QUESTIONS

  • What do you think light is?
  • Where can light come from?
  • How do you think you would manage if there was no light?
  • What do you depend on light for?

THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT SOURCES OF LIGHT

  • Light moves in all directions from the source that is creating the light (the sun or a light bulb, for example).
  • The sun is the main source of light for living things on earth.
  • Other sources of light include flames, incandescent materials (eg hot wires or hot ceramic mantels in gas lamps (and electricity travelling through air (as in lightning) or through a very low pressure gas (as in fluorescent lighting tubes).

EYES DETECT LIGHT

  • Eyes can detect different brightness and colors.
  • Light travels to the eyes and enters them through the pupils.
  • The iris controls the size of each pupil to let in more or less light.
  • The lens of an eye focuses the light onto the retina at the back of the eye.
  • Images of what the eyes are focusing on form on the retina, which contains sensitive receptor cells that convert the light into signals.
  • The signals travel, via the optic nerves, to the brain which interprets these signals.