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Grade 8 · Science · Unit 11 of 16

How Light Behaves

Reflection, refraction and the ray model

What your child practises

Light as rays that travel in straight lines, how materials reflect, absorb or transmit it, the law of reflection and why light bends (refracts) between materials.

Nunavut Curriculum approved guide: Nunavut adaptation of Alberta Science 7–9 (2003), Unit C: Light and Optical Systems · transmission, reflection, absorption and refraction of light, and the ray model of light

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A straw in a glass of water looks bent at the water's surface. Why?

    • The glass is curved like a mirror.
    • Water absorbs the straw.
    • Light bends as it passes from water to air.
    • The straw really bends.

  2. Question 2

    Light travels in…

    • curves
    • zigzags
    • straight lines
    • circles

  3. Question 3

    A ray hits a flat mirror and makes an angle of 45° with the normal. What is the angle of reflection?

    answer box°

  4. Question 4

    What is refraction?

    • the making of light
    • the bending of light as it passes from one material to another
    • the soaking up of light by a surface
    • the bouncing of light off a surface

  5. Question 5

    Frosted glass lets some light through but you cannot see clearly. It is…

    • transparent
    • luminous
    • translucent
    • opaque

  6. Question 6

    A ray of light strikes a flat mirror. The angle it hits at is equal to the angle it…

    • absorbs at
    • reflects at
    • refracts at
    • disappears at

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