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entering the eye. The eye lens forms an inverted real image of the object
on the retina. The retina is a delicate membrane having enormous
number of light-sensitive cells. The light-sensitive cells get activated
upon illumination and generate electrical signals. These signals are
sent to the brain via the optic nerves. The brain interprets these signals,
and finally, processes the information so that we perceive objects as
they are.
Damage to or malfunction of any part of the visual system can lead to significant loss
of visual functioning. For example, if any of the structures involved in the transmission
Do You Know?
of light, like the cornea, pupil, eye lens, aqueous humour and vitreous humour or
those responsible for conversion of light to electrical impulse, like the retina or even
the optic nerve that transmits these impulses to the brain, is damaged, it will result
in visual impairment.You might have experienced that you are not able to see objects
clearly for some time when you enter from bright light to a room with dim light. After
sometime, however, you may be able to see things in the dim-lit room. The pupil of
an eye acts like a variable aperture whose size can be varied with the help of the iris.
When the light is very bright, the iris contracts the pupil to allow less light to enter
the eye. However, in dim light the iris expands the pupil to allow more light to enter
the eye. Thus, the pupil opens completely through the relaxation of the iris.
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Why do we have two eyes for vision and not just one?
There are several advantages of our having two eyes instead of one. It gives a wider
Do You Know?
field of view. A human being has a horizontal field of view of about 150° with one eye
and of about 180° with two eyes. The ability to detect faint objects is, of course,
enhanced with two detectors instead of one.
Some animals, usually prey animals, have their two eyes positioned on opposite sides
of their heads to give the widest possible field of view. But our two eyes are positioned
on the front of our heads, and it thus reduces our field of view in favour of what is
called stereopsis. Shut one eye and the world looks flat – two-dimensional. Keep both
eyes open and the world takes on the third dimension of depth. Because our eyes
are separated by a few centimetres, each eye sees a slightly different image. Our
brain combines the two images into one, using the extra information to tell us how
close or far away things are.
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(b) Hypermetropia
Hypermetropia is also known as far-sightedness. A
person with hypermetropia can see distant objects
clearly but cannot see nearby objects distinctly. The
near point, for the person, is farther away from the
normal near point (25 cm). Such a person has to keep
a reading material much beyond 25 cm from the eye
for comfortable reading. This is because the light rays
from a closeby object are focussed at a point behind
the retina as shown in Fig. 11.3 (b). This defect arises
either because (i) the focal length of the eye lens is too
long, or (ii) the eyeball has become too small. This defect
can be corrected by using a convex lens of appropriate
power. This is illustrated in Fig. 11.3 (c). Eye-glasses
with converging lenses provide the additional focussing
power required for forming the image on the retina.
(c) Presbyopia
Figure 11.3 The power of accommodation of the eye usually
(a), (b) The hypermetropic eye, and (c) decreases with ageing. For most people, the near point
correction for hypermetropia gradually recedes away. They find it difficult to see
N = Near point of a nearby objects comfortably and distinctly without
hypermetropic eye.
corrective eye-glasses. This defect is called Presbyopia.
N’ = Near point of a
It arises due to the gradual weakening of the ciliary
normal eye.
muscles and diminishing flexibility of the eye lens.
Sometimes, a person may suffer from both myopia and
hypermetropia. Such people often require bi-focal lenses. A common
type of bi-focal lenses consists of both concave and convex lenses.
The upper portion consists of a concave lens. It facilitates distant
vision. The lower part is a convex lens. It facilitates near vision.
These days, it is possible to correct the refractive defects with
contact lenses or through surgical interventions.
Q U E S T I O N S
1. What is meant by power of accommodation of the eye?
2. A person with a myopic eye cannot see objects beyond 1.2 m distinctly.
?
What should be the type of the corrective lens used to restore proper
vision?
3. What is the far point and near point of the human eye with normal
vision?
4. A student has difficulty reading the blackboard while sitting in the last
row. What could be the defect the child is suffering from? How can it be
corrected?
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Think it over
n Eye removal takes only 10-15 minutes. It is a simple process and does not lead to
any disfigurement.
n Persons who were infected with or died because of AIDS, Hepatitis B or C, rabies,
acute leukaemia, tetanus, cholera, meningitis or encephalitis cannot donate eyes.
An eye bank collects, evaluates and distributes the donated eyes. All eyes donated are
evaluated using strict medical standards. Those donated eyes found unsuitable for
transplantation are used for valuable research and medical education. The identities of
both the donor and the recipient remain confidential.
One pair of eyes gives vision to up to FOUR CORNEAL BLIND PEOPLE.
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Activity 11.1
n Fix a sheet of white paper on a drawing board using drawing pins.
n Place a glass prism on it in such a way that it rests on its triangular
base. Trace the outline of the prism using a pencil.
n Draw a straight line PE inclined to one of the refracting surfaces,
say AB, of the prism.
n Fix two pins, say at points P and Q, on the line PE as shown in
Fig. 11.4.
n Look for the images of the pins, fixed at P and Q, through the
other face AC.
n Fix two more pins, at points R and S, such that the pins at R and
S and the images of the pins at P and Q lie on the same straight
line.
n Remove the pins and the glass prism.
n The line PE meets the boundary of the prism at point E
(see Fig. 11.4). Similarly, join and produce the points R and S. Let
these lines meet the boundary of the prism at E and F, respectively.
Join E and F.
n Draw perpendiculars to the refracting surfaces AB and AC of the
prism at points E and F, respectively.
n Mark the angle of incidence (∠i), the angle of refraction (∠r) and
the angle of emergence (∠e) as shown in Fig. 11.4.
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11.4 DISPERSION OF WHITE LIGHT BY A GL ASS PRISM
GLASS
You must have seen and appreciated the spectacular colours in a rainbow.
How could the white light of the Sun give us various colours of the
rainbow? Before we take up this question, we shall first go back to the
refraction of light through a prism. The inclined refracting surfaces of a
glass prism show exciting phenomenon. Let us find it out through an
activity.
Activity 11.2
n Take a thick sheet of cardboard and make a small hole or narrow
slit in its middle.
n Allow sunlight to fall on the narrow slit. This gives a narrow beam
of white light.
n Now, take a glass prism and allow the light from the slit to fall on
one of its faces as shown in Fig. 11.5.
n Turn the prism slowly until the light that comes out of it appears
on a nearby screen.
n What do you observe? You will find a beautiful band of colours.
Why does this happen?
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allowed all the colours of the spectrum to pass through the
second prism. He found a beam of white light emerging from the
other side of the second prism. This observation gave Newton
the idea that the sunlight is made up of seven colours.
Any light that gives a spectrum similar to that of sunlight is
often referred to as white light.
A rainbow is a natural spectrum appearing in the sky after a
rain shower (Fig. 11.7). It is caused by dispersion of sunlight by
tiny water droplets, present in the atmosphere. A rainbow is
Figure 11.7 always formed in a direction opposite to that of the Sun. The
Rainbow in the sky water droplets act like small prisms. They refract and disperse
the incident sunlight, then reflect it internally, and finally refract
Raindrop
it again when it comes out of the raindrop (Fig. 11.8). Due to the
Sunlight
dispersion of light and internal reflection, different colours reach
the observer’s eye.
You can also see a rainbow on a sunny day when you look at
the sky through a waterfall or through a water fountain, with the
Sun behind you.
Twinkling of stars
The twinkling of a star is due to atmospheric refraction of
starlight. The starlight, on entering the earth’s atmosphere,
undergoes refraction continuously before it reaches the earth.
The atmospheric refraction occurs in a medium of gradually
changing refractive index. Since the atmosphere bends
starlight towards the normal, the apparent position of the
star is slightly different from its actual position. The star
appears slightly higher (above) than its actual position when
viewed near the horizon (Fig. 11.9). Further, this apparent
position of the star is not stationary, but keeps on changing
slightly, since the physical conditions of the earth’s
atmosphere are not stationary, as was the case in the
Figure 11.9 previous paragraph. Since the stars are very distant, they
Apparent star position approximate point-sized sources of light. As the path of rays
due to atmospheric of light coming from the star goes on varying slightly, the
refraction apparent position of the star fluctuates and the amount of
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starlight entering the eye flickers – the star sometimes appears brighter,
and at some other time, fainter, which is the twinkling effect.
Why don’t the planets twinkle? The planets are much closer to the
earth, and are thus seen as extended sources. If we consider a planet as
a collection of a large number of point-sized sources of light, the total
variation in the amount of light entering our eye from all the individual
point-sized sources will average out to zero, thereby
nullifying the twinkling effect.
Advance sunrise and delayed sunset
The Sun is visible to us about 2 minutes before the
actual sunrise, and about 2 minutes after the actual
sunset because of atmospheric refraction. By actual
sunrise, we mean the actual crossing of the horizon by
the Sun. Fig. 11.10 shows the actual and apparent
positions of the Sun with respect to the horizon. The
time difference between actual sunset and the apparent
sunset is about 2 minutes. The apparent flattening of
the Sun’s disc at sunrise and sunset is also due to the
same phenomenon.
Figure 11.10
11.6 SCATTERING OF LIGHT Atmospheric refraction
effects at sunrise and
The interplay of light with objects around us gives rise to several sunset
spectacular phenomena in nature. The blue colour of the sky, colour of
water in deep sea, the reddening of the sun at sunrise and the sunset
are some of the wonderful phenomena we are familiar with. In the previous
class, you have learnt about the scattering of light by colloidal particles.
The path of a beam of light passing through a true solution is not visible.
However, its path becomes visible through a colloidal solution where the
size of the particles is relatively larger.
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11.6.2 Why is the colour of the clear Sky Blue?
The molecules of air and other fine particles in the atmosphere have size
smaller than the wavelength of visible light. These are more effective in
scattering light of shorter wavelengths at the blue end than light of longer
wavelengths at the red end. The red light has a wavelength about 1.8
times greater than blue light. Thus, when sunlight passes through the
atmosphere, the fine particles in air scatter the blue colour (shorter
wavelengths) more strongly than red. The scattered blue light enters
our eyes. If the earth had no atmosphere, there would not have been
any scattering. Then, the sky would have looked dark. The sky appears
dark to passengers flying at very high altitudes, as scattering is not
prominent at such heights.
You might have observed that ‘danger’ signal lights are red in colour.
Do you know why? The red is least scattered by fog or smoke. Therefore,
it can be seen in the same colour at a distance.
Activity 11.3
n Place a strong source (S) of white light at the focus of a converging
lens (L1). This lens provides a parallel beam of light.
n Allow the light beam to pass through a transparent glass tank (T)
containing clear water.
n Allow the beam of light to pass through a circular hole (c) made in
a cardboard. Obtain a sharp image of the circular hole on a screen
(MN) using a second converging lens (L2), as shown in Fig. 11.11.
n Dissolve about 200 g of sodium thiosulphate (hypo) in about 2 L of
clean water taken in the tank. Add about 1 to 2 mL of concentrated
sulphuric acid to the water. What do you observe?
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This activity demonstrates the scattering of
light that helps you to understand the bluish
colour of the sky and the reddish appearance of
the Sun at the sunrise or the sunset.
Light from the Sun near the horizon passes
through thicker layers of air and larger distance
in the earth’s atmosphere before reaching our eyes
(Fig. 11.12).
However, light from the Sun overhead would
travel relatively shorter distance. At noon, the Sun
appears white as only a little of the blue and violet Figure 11.12
colours are scattered. Near the horizon, most of Reddening of the Sun at sunrise and sunset
the blue light and shorter wavelengths are
scattered away by the particles. Therefore, the light that reaches our
eyes is of longer wavelengths. This gives rise to the reddish appearance
of the Sun.
E X E R C I S E S
1. The human eye can focus on objects at different distances by adjusting the focal
length of the eye lens. This is due to
(a) presbyopia.
(b) accommodation.
(c) near-sightedness.
(d) far-sightedness.
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2. The human eye forms the image of an object at its
(a) cornea. (b) iris. (c) pupil. (d) retina.
3. The least distance of distinct vision for a young adult with normal vision is about
(a) 25 m. (b) 2.5 cm. (c) 25 cm. (d) 2.5 m.
4. The change in focal length of an eye lens is caused by the action of the
(a) pupil. (b) retina.
(c) ciliary muscles. (d) iris.
5. A person needs a lens of power –5.5 dioptres for correcting his distant vision. For
correcting his near vision he needs a lens of power +1.5 dioptre. What is the focal
length of the lens required for correcting (i) distant vision, and (ii) near vision?
6. The far point of a myopic person is 80 cm in front of the eye. What is the nature and
power of the lens required to correct the problem?
7. Make a diagram to show how hypermetropia is corrected. The near point of a
hypermetropic eye is 1 m. What is the power of the lens required to correct this
defect? Assume that the near point of the normal eye is 25 cm.
8. Why is a normal eye not able to see clearly the objects placed closer than
25 cm?
9. What happens to the image distance in the eye when we increase the distance of an
object from the eye?
10. Why do stars twinkle?
11. Explain why the planets do not twinkle.
12. Why does the Sun appear reddish early in the morning?
13. Why does the sky appear dark instead of blue to an astronaut?
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