Did you ever wonder why the sky is blue in the daytime but reddish-orange during sunrise and sunset or why stars sparkle only at night? These are explained by Class 10 Science Chapter 10, The Human Eye and the Colorful World. Significant phenomena such as how our eyes work and defects of vision that occur commonly, how light is deviated (refraction), how white light spreads into its colours (dispersion), why stars sparkle, how light gets scattered, and the Tyndall effect are all described in this chapter of NCERT solutions.
Class 10 Science NCERT Chapter 10: Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Questions
Class 10 Science Chapter 10 The Human Eye and the Colourful World (HOTS Questions) will assess in-depth knowledge and concept application. The questions are not basic ones because they make students develop their own way of thinking about the real-life phenomena, such as myopia, dispersion, and atmospheric refraction.
Q1: The angle of a prism is $30^{\circ}$ and its refractive index is $\sqrt{2}$ and one of the surface is silvered. At what angle of incidence, a ray should be incident on one surface so that after reflection from the silvered surface, it retraces its path?
Answer:

$\begin{aligned} & \text { so } r_1+r_2=A \\ & \text { and } r_2=0 \\ & \text { Hence } r_1=30^{\circ} \\ & n_1 \sin i=n_2 \sin r \\ & \Rightarrow \sin i=(\sqrt{2})(1 / 2) \\ & i=45^{\circ}\end{aligned}$
Q2: One ray of light suffers minimum deviation in an equilateral prism P additional prism Q and R of identical shape and made up of same material shown in figure. The ray will now suffer ________

Answer:
Atmospheric refraction causes the sun to appear two minutes before it is actually above the horizon (advanced sunrise). Also, we can see the sun for about two minutes even after it is actually below the horizon (delayed sunset). Therefore, the time from sunrise to sunset is increased by about four minutes because of the refraction of light through the earth's atmosphere. If the earth had no atmosphere, the length of the day would have been shorter by about four minutes.
Q3: Which of the following are conditions necessary for observing a rainbow?
Answer:
A rainbow occurs due to reflection and refraction occurring from water droplets present in the air. So, to see a rainbow, it should have rained and the Sun should be present.
At the same time, the Sun should be behind the observer. If it is otherwise, only the glare of the Sun will be felt and no rainbow will be observed.
Q4: A beam of white light falls on a glass prism. The colour of light which undergoes the least bending on passing through the glass prism is :
Answer:
$\mu=\frac{\text { velocity of light in air or vacuum }}{\text { velocity of light in a given medium }}$
The refractive index of violet colour in the glass is greater than the refractive index of red, in other words, the speed of violet is the least in glass and the speed of red is the highest. So, the red light bends the least while the violet the most.
Q5: By how much time the day would have been shorter if the earth had no atmosphere?
Answer:
Atmospheric refraction causes the sun to appear two minutes before it is actually above the horizon (advanced sunrise). Also, we can see the sun for about two minutes even after it is actually below the horizon (delayed sunset). Therefore, the time from sunrise to sunset is increased by about four minutes because of the refraction of light through the earth's atmosphere. If the earth had no atmosphere, the length of the day would have been shorter by about four minutes.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Science Chapter 10: Important Topics
NCERT Solutions Class 10 Science Chapter 10: The Human eye and the Colourful World have all the important topics like structure of the human eye, problems in vision, refraction in air, light scattering and formation of a rainbow. Students can learn the major concepts and successfully pass the exams with the utilization of these solutions.
10.1 The Human Eye
10.1.1 Power Of Accommodation
10.2 Defects Of Vision And Their Correction
10.3 Refraction Of Light Through A Prism
10.4 Dispersion Of White Light By A Glass Prism
10.5 Atmospheric Refraction
10.6 Scattering Of Light
10.6.1 Tyndall Effect
10.6.2 Why Is The Colour Of The Clear Sky Blue?
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Science Chapter 10: Important Formulae
The Human Eye and the Colourful World NCERT Solutions Class 10 Science Chapter 10 also comprise a list of useful formulae on lens and refraction and vision correction. These solutions enable students to better solve numerical questions in less time and practice more in examination preparation.
1. Lens Formula
$
\frac{1}{f}=\frac{1}{v}-\frac{1}{u}
$
Where:
$f=$ focal length of the lens
$v=$ image distance
$u=$ object distance
(Sign convention applies)
2. Magnification by a Lens
$
m=\frac{h^{\prime}}{h}=\frac{v}{u}
$
Where:
$m=$ magnification
$h^{\prime}=$ height of the image
$h=$ height of the object
3. Refractive Index
$
n=\frac{\sin i}{\sin r}
$
Or,
$
n=\frac{c}{v}
$
Where:
$i=$ angle of incidence
$r=$ angle of refraction
$c=$ speed of light in vacuum
$v=$ speed of light in the medium
Approach to Solve Questions of Human Eye And Colorful World
- Understand the anatomy of the human eye – Study about structures like cornea, iris, lens, retina, etc.
- Understand defects and corrections of the eye – Myopia (concave lens), Hypermetropia (convex lens), Presbyopia (bifocal lens).
-
Learn accommodation – The capacity of the eye to accommodate lens shape to focus near and far objects.
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Understand refraction using prism – Light is bent and separated into spectrum (dispersion).
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Understand the effects of atmospheric refraction – Twinkling of stars, advanced sunrise, delayed sunset.
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Understand scattering of light – Blue sky, red sunset phenomenon explained by scattering of shorter and longer wavelengths.
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Label diagrams clearly – Eye, prism, spectrum diagrams assist in scoring marks.
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Practice NCERT questions – In-text and exercise questions often appear in exams.