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Questions on colour

Q5. Light shines onto a ball. Naomi is looking at the ball.

(a) Describe how light from the lamp lights up the ball and makes it visible to Naomi.

The light is scattered by the ball. Some of that scattered light enters Naomi's eye enabling her eye to form an image of the ball.

Reflected would be accepted but unless an object is really shiny the main way that light comes back off an object is by being 'scattered'. If it is reflected you would see a reflection in it.

2 marks

(b) Naomi uses different colours of light and different coloured balls.

(i) Complete the table to show the colours that the balls appear to Naomi.

colour of the ball
colour of the light
the colour the ball appears to Naomi
white
red
red
green
white
green

2 marks

(ii) Why does a black object appear black in any light?

any one from:

  • it absorbs all the light accept 'it absorbs light'
  • it does not scatter any light

1 mark

(c) Choose from the following terms to complete the sentences below:


At a plane mirror, the angle of incidence is ……equal to …..…
the angle of reflection. The distance from the object to the mirror is
……equal to …..…. the apparent distance from the mirror to the image.

2 marks

(d) A beam of white light shines onto a sheet of white paper. An identical beam of light shines onto a mirror. The light is scattered from the paper and reflected from the mirror.

Describe how scattering by paper and reflection by a mirror are different from each other.

Scattering sends or reflects light from each point on the object in all directions (accept 'no image can be seen in the paper'), whereas reflection sends light from each point on the object in one direction only (or to one point) (accept 'an image can be seen in the mirror').

2 marks

Maximum 9 marks