Our Lady of La Porteria Academy

San Antonio, Calabanga, Camarines Sur

HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT(JHS)
S/Y: 2024 – 2025

SECOND QUARTER
LABORATORY ACTIVITY NO. 3
in SCIENCE 10

Name: _______________________________ Section: ____________

Date: ________________________________ Score: ____________

Investigating the Behavior of Light

Objectives:
This activity aims to help students to;
 To observe and understand the behavior of light as it undergoes transmission,
dispersion, diffraction, interference, and scattering.
Materials:
 Flashlight (or phone flashlight)
 Clear plastic wrap or a transparent plastic sheet (for transparent material)
 Wax paper or frosted plastic (for translucent material)
 Cardboard or thick paper (for opaque material)
 Drinking glass of water
 Small mirror
 Compact disc (CD) or DVD
 Glass of water
 Small drop of food coloring
 White paper
 Small cardboard or paper with a narrow slit cut into it (for diffraction)
 Box

Procedures:

Part 1: Transmission

Purpose: To observe how light passes through transparent, translucent, and

opaque materials.

 Gather three materials: a clear plastic wrap or plastic sheet (transparent),

wax paper (translucent), and cardboard or thick paper (opaque).
 Turn on the flashlight and place it in front of each material, one at a time.
 Observe how much light passes through each material by looking at the light
projected onto a wall or white paper behind each item.

Part 2: Dispersion

Purpose: To separate white light into different colors.

 Fill a clear drinking glass with water and place it near the edge of a table in a
darkened room.
 Shine a flashlight at an angle through the water in the glass so that the light
exits the other side and projects onto a white paper.
 Adjust the angle until you see a rainbow or spectrum of colors on the paper.

Part 3: Diffraction

Purpose: To observe how light bends around edges or through narrow openings.

 Cut a narrow slit in a piece of cardboard or thick paper.

 Shine a flashlight through the slit in a dark room and project the light onto a
white surface or paper a few inches away.
 Observe the pattern of light and shadow created.
 Part 4: Interference

Purpose: To observe the interference pattern of light.

 Take a CD or DVD and hold it under a bright light or shine a flashlight on it at

an angle.
 Observe the colorful patterns that appear on the surface of the CD or DVD.

Part 5: Scattering
Purpose: To observe scattering of light by particles.

 Fill a clear glass with water.

 Add a very small drop of milk or a tiny amount of food coloring (just enough
to make the water slightly cloudy).
 Shine a flashlight from the side of the glass in a dark room.

Guide questions:
1. How does light interact differently with transparent, translucent, and opaque
materials, and what does this tell us about the nature of each material?
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2. When light passes through a prism or a glass of water, why does it separate
into a spectrum of colors, and which colors are visible?
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3. What is diffraction, and how does the light’s behavior change when it passes
through a narrow slit compared to when it shines directly onto a surface?
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4. How does interference create the colorful patterns observed on a CD or DVD,

and what does this reveal about the structure of the disc?
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5. Why does adding milk or food coloring to water make the light beam visible,
and how is this similar to natural phenomena like the blue color of the sky?
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Reflection:
After this activity I learned that
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