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Reflection and Refraction

The document discusses key concepts in optics including: 1) Reflection - The laws of reflection state that the incident, reflected, and normal rays all lie in the same plane and the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. 2) Refraction - Refraction occurs when light passes from one medium to another and changes direction. The laws of refraction state that the incident, normal, and refracted rays all lie in the same plane and the ratio of sines of the incident and refracted angles is a constant called the refractive index. 3) Total internal reflection - When light passes from a denser to rarer medium, above a critical angle there is no refraction and the light

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Md Safwat
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250 views

Reflection and Refraction

The document discusses key concepts in optics including: 1) Reflection - The laws of reflection state that the incident, reflected, and normal rays all lie in the same plane and the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. 2) Refraction - Refraction occurs when light passes from one medium to another and changes direction. The laws of refraction state that the incident, normal, and refracted rays all lie in the same plane and the ratio of sines of the incident and refracted angles is a constant called the refractive index. 3) Total internal reflection - When light passes from a denser to rarer medium, above a critical angle there is no refraction and the light

Uploaded by

Md Safwat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 11:

(Optics)

Reflection

Suppose a ray of light falls on a surface and is reflected along the path OB. ON
is the normal to the reflecting surface at the point of incidence O. From the
laws of reflection:-

i) The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal at the point of
incidence all lie in the same plane.
ii) The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

Formation of image

‘I’ is the image of the object pin (O)


1
Characteristics of the image formed by a plane mirror:-

i) The image is virtual.


ii) The image is of the same size as the object.
iii) The image is inverted latarally.
iv) Image distance from the mirror equals to the object distance from the
mirror. (OA=IA)
Refraction
If a ray of light passes from one medium to another then the ray changes
direction. This effect is called refraction. If the ray passes from lighter to
denser medium then it bends towards the normal and if it passes from denser to
lighter medium then it bends away from the normal.

Laws of Refraction
i) The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal at the point of
incidence all lie in the same plane.
ii) The ratio of sine of angle of incidence (i) to the sine of the angle of
refraction (r)for a given pair of medium is a constant.
Suppose light is passing from air to glass, then for any angle of incidence (i)
the refracted angle (r) will be such that sin i / sin r = 1.5, for air and water
sin i/sin r=1.33.
2
Refractive index
If a ray of light passes from one medium to another then the ratio of
sin i / sin r is the refractive index of the second medium with respect to the
first one.

The refractive index of glass with respect to air ang = sin i / sin r = 1.5
[where a = air (first medium), g = glass (second medium), n = refractive
index]
The refractive index of water with respect to air, anw = 1.33

The refractive index of air with respect to glass, gna = 0.66


Therefore, gna = 1 / ang

3
Verification of laws of refraction

We take a

rectangular glass block and put it on a white paper. Then we outline its
boundary on the paper. At point ‘O’, we draw a normal to the glass surface.
Using a protector, we draw several lines from the point ‘O’ to represent
different incident rays at different angle of incidence. Now we place the
glass block on the paper. We allow a ray of light to fall along the path AO.
The emergent ray from the glass block is observed at B and a line is drawn
along this ray. Then we measure the refracted angle, r and we fill up the
following table.
i R Sin i Sin r Sin i / Sin r

If we find that sin i / sin r is constant for all values of ‘i’ then it verifies the law
of refraction.
We can also plot a graph between sin i and sin r. If the graph is a straight line
passing through the origin then it proves the law of refraction.
[N.B. If you are asked to find the the refractive index then find the gradient of
the graph ang = gradient = sin i / sin r ]

4
Critical angle and the total internal reflection

If light rays passes from denser to lighter medium then it bends away from the
normal (r>i). If we gradually increase the angle of incidence, i then for a
certain angle of incidence refracted angle, r will be 900.

The angle of incidence for which the refracted angle is 900 is known as the
critical angle of the first denser medium.

If we increase the angle of incidence further (i>c) then the ray will not refract
but will undergo total internal reflection.

gna = sin c / sin 90

or, 1 / ang = sin c / 1

therefore, sin c = 1 / ang

5
If ang = 1.5,

sin Cglass = 1 / 1.5

Or, Cglass = 42o.

And, sin Cwater = 1 / 1.33

Or, Cwater = 48.6o.

Semi – circular glass block

Dispersion

When white light enters a prism at an


angle, it splits up in seven different
colors. This splitting of white light into
seven colors is known as dispersion.
The violet deviates the most and red
the least.

Dispersion takes place due to different wavelength of the different colors. We


can prove that refractive index in glass for a certain electromagnetic wave,

6
n = c1 / c2 [ where c1 is the speed in air and c2 the speed in glass]

ang = sin i / sin r = c1 / c2 = fλ1 / fλ2

Or, ang = λ1 / λ2

Since seven colors of the spectrum has


different wavelengths, their refractive index will be different. Hence they will
deviate at different angles.

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