Chapter 11 Human Eye and Colourful World

The Human Eye: It is a natural optical instrument which is used to see the objects by human
beings. It is like a camera which has a lens and screen system.

Various parts of Human Eye

1.Eyeball -The human eye is nearly spherical ball of radius 2.3 cm in diameter. Its outermost
covering is called sclerotic. It is made up of white, tough and opaque fibrous tissue. Its function is to
protect the eyes from shocks and injury.
2. Cornea-Cornea is outer bulging part of eye from the front. It is thin and transparent. It refracts
most of the light rays into the eye.

3.Iris- It is a dark assembly of muscles which gives blue, black, brown, and other colours to the eye.
Its function is to control the size of pupil.

4. Pupil- The hole in the middle of iris muscles is known as pupil. It has variable aperture. Normal
diameter of pupil is 1mm. It appears black as no light is reflected from it. Its function is to control the
amount of light rays into the eye.
5.Lens- Just behind the iris there is natural double convex lens. It is made up of fibrous flexible jelly
like transparent material. The function of lens is to focus images of objects on the retina.

6.Ciliary Muscles- The lens is held in the position by the ciliary muscles. The function of ciliary
muscles is to change the curvature of lens. It changes the focal length of lens so that we are able to
see near objects as well as for objects.

Distant object- Ciliary muscles relax- lens becomes thin- focal length increases-Power decreases
Near object- Ciliary muscles contract- lens becomes thick- focal length decreases- Power increases
7.Optic nerve- It is a bundle of nerves originating from brain and entering the eyeball from the
backside. Its function is to carry electrical signals to the brain.

8.Retina -Retina is the inner most layer of the eyeball where the eye lens system forms an image. It
is a light sensitive screen as it contains billions of light sensitive cells. These cells get activated when
light falls on them and start generating electrical signals. These signals are carried to the brain
through optic nerve and we are able to see the objects.

Power of accommodation
It is defined as the ability of eyes to focus near and far objects clearly on the retina by adjusting the
focal length of eye lens.

Near Point- The nearest point up to which the eye can see clearly is called the near point of the eye.
for a young adult with normal vision it is about 25 cm.

Far Point- The most distant object that eye can see is called far-point of the eye. for normal eye it is
infinity.

least distance of distinct vision- It is the minimum distance at which eye can see the objects
clearly without strain. It is 25 cm.
Cataract -It is the most common disease of eyes. At the old age the eye lens becomes milky and
cloudy due the formation of thin membrane over it. This causes partial or complete loss of vision.
This condition is called cataract. It is possible to remove the membrane to restore vision through a
surgery which is known as cataract surgery.

Defects of vision
Myopia (short-sightedness)- In this defect a person can see near objects clearly but not able to
see far objects distinctly. It is a defect of refraction in which parallel rays of light from the object kept
at infinity come to focus in front of retina. Hence image is formed in front of retina.
A person with this defect has a far Point less than infinity.

Causes of myopia
1. Curvature of Cornea- when the curvature of cornea or lens becomes more than normal ,the focal
length decreases so the image is formed in front of retina.
2.Elongation of Eyeball- The distance between lens and the retina increases so the image is formed
in front of retina

Correction of myopia-This defect can be corrected by using concave lens of suitable power. The
function of concave lens is to make the image of an object kept at infinity at the far point of
myopic eye and the image is formed on the retina.

Hypermetropia (Short-sightedness) A hypermetropic person can see distant objects clearly but not
able to see near objects. It is a defect of refraction in which rays of light from the nearby object
come to focus behind the retina.
The near point of a hypermetropic eye is more than 25 cm.
Causes of Hypermetropia-
1. Curvature of Cornea- When the curvature of cornea or the lens becomes less than normal, focal
length increases and image is formed behind the retina.

2.Shortening of eyeball -The eyeball becomes too short so that the image is formed before the
retina.

Correction of Hypermetropia- This defect can be corrected by using convex lens of suitable
power. The function of this convex lens is to form image of an object kept at 25 cm at the near point
of hypermetropic eye and the image is formed on the retina.

Presbyopia- The power of accommodation usually decreases with age. Generally after the age of
40 ,the near point recedes beyond 25 cm due to the gradual weakening of ciliary muscles. A person
find it difficult to see nearby objects. This is called Presbyopia .It is also known as old age
hypermetropia. This defect can be corrected by using a convex lens of suitable power.
Sometimes a person may suffer both type of defects myopia and hypermetropia. These defects can
be corrected by using a bi- focal lenses. The upper portion of the lens is concave lens to see distant
objects and lower portion of the lens is convex to see nearby objects.

Dispersion -The splitting of white light into seven colours when it is allowed to pass through a prism
is known as dispersion. The band of several colours is called spectrum.

Deviation by Prism-

Cause of dispersion- Sunlight is a mixture of seven colours. Each colour is made up of waves of a
particular wavelength. The speed of light in vacuum is same for all waves in vacuum but it is different
in different mediums. Due to the difference in their speeds, the bending of different colours are also
different. The wavelength of red colour is more than violet. Therefore the angle of refraction of red
colour is maximum hence it deviates least. Similarly the violet colour, the angle of refraction is
minimum it deviates most.

Recombination of colours to produce white light- If the second prism identical to the first prism
with the same glass material and with the same refracting angle is place inverted in the path of
spectrum formed by the first prism then a beam of white light emerges out from the other side of
inverted prism.
The first prism is known as dispersing Prism and the second prism is known as recombination Prism.
Both the Prism A and B together acts as a glass slab with parallel sides and hence the emergent ray is
parallel to the incident ray.

Rainbow- Rainbow is an example of a spectrum of white light from the sun. It is always formed in
the direction opposite to the sun. The formation of rainbow is combination of refraction, total
internal reflection, and dispersion of light by the water droplets in the sky. Here water droplets
behave like a prism. They dispersed and reflect the sunlight.

Atmospheric refraction-Refraction of light rays due to the atmosphere having layers of air of
different optical density is known as atmospheric refraction for example
1.Flickering of objects seen through a flame
2.Apparent height and twinkling of stars
3.Advance sunrise and delayed sunset
4. Flattening of sun’s disk

Apparent height and twinkling of stars-

Stars are situated far from us and can be considered as point source of light.
Stars appear higher than its actual position due to atmospheric refraction.
This is because when the light entering from the star travelling obliquely through the air of
increasing optical density, it bends towards the normal.
Observer’s eye traces straight line path which gives apparent height to the stars.
 The physical conditions of these layers of air are not stationary. Their refractive indices are
continuously changing. Hence the very next moment stars appear to be different position but very
near to the first. The apparent position of the star fluctuates in a small area that makes it appear to
twinkle.

Planets do not twinkle- As a distance between the planets and the earth is less as compared to
stars, the planets can be considered as collection of large number of point sources of light. Their
apparent position also changes due to atmospheric refraction but the planets are near to the eye as
compared to the stars, the apparent shift cannot be easily observed as they subtend greater angle to
the eye.

As planets are considered as a collection of point sources of light the total variation in the amount
of light entering our eye from all individual point size sources will average out to be zero therefore
nullifying the twinkling effect.

Scattering of light- When light enters the atmosphere of earth ,the atoms and molecules of different
gases present in the atmosphere absorb light then these atoms and molecules of gas is re-emit light
in all directions. This phenomenon is known as scattering of light.

Tyndall Effect- The scattering of light takes place in all directions when a beam of light passes
through a colloidal solution which contains fine suspended particles.
Concept of colour of scatter light- Very fine particles scatter mainly smaller wavelength while
particles of larger size of scatter light rays of larger wavelength and if the size of particle is large
enough then the scatter light may be appear white.