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Home  Optics The Ray Model of Light Summary |
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Summary - Ray Model of LightWe can understand many phenomena involving light without having to use sophisticated models such as the wave model or the particle model. Instead, we simply describe light according to the path it takes, which we call a ray. The ray model of light is useful when light is interacting with material objects that are much larger than a wavelength of light. Since a wavelength of visible light is so short compared to the human scale of existence, the ray model is useful in many practical cases.We see things because light comes from them to our eyes. Objects that glow may send light directly to our eyes, but we see an object that doesn't glow via light from another source that has been reflected by the object. Many of the interactions of light and matter can be understood by considering what happens when light reaches the boundary between two different substances. In this situation, part of the light is reflected (bounces back) and part passes on into the new medium. This is not surprising - it is typical behavior for a wave, and light is a wave. Light energy can also be absorbed by matter, i.e. converted into heat.
A smooth surface produces specular reflection, in which the reflected ray exits at the same angle with
respect to the normal as that of the incoming ray. A rough surface gives diffuse reflection, where a single ray
of light is divided up into many weaker reflected rays going in many directions.
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