Refraction

Refraction and Speed of light

Ben was surprised to see a lemon appear larger than its size
when he placed it in a glass filled with water.

What is the reason behind this?

When a light ray travels from one transparent medium to another, it bends at the surface that
separates the two media. Hence, the lemon appears larger than its actual size. This happens
because different media have different optical densities.

The phenomenon of bending of light as it travels from one medium to another is known as
refraction of light.

The phenomenon of refraction shows that the speed of light is different in different media.

As a ray of light moves from an optically rarer

medium to an optically denser medium, it bends
towards the normal at the point of incidence.
Therefore, the angle of incidence (i) is greater
than the angle of refraction (r). Hence, i > r.

As a ray of light moves from an optically

denser medium to an optically rarer medium,
it bends away from the normal. Therefore,
the angle of incidence (i) is less than the
angle of refraction (r).

Hence, i < r.

Speed of Light
Light changes its speed when it enters one medium from another. The velocities of light in various
media are given in the following table.

Medium Velocity

Air 3 108 m/s

Water 2.25 108 m/s

Glass 1.8 108 m/s

From the table, we can easily see that light travels with lesser speed through glass and water than
it does through air. Therefore, we can say that water and glass are optically denser than air, or air
is optically rarer than water and glass.

Refraction of light occurs because of this change in the speed of light due to a change in the
medium. When light enters an optically denser medium from an optically rarer medium, the speed
of light slows down and light bends towards the normal. The opposite happens when light enters
an optically rarer medium from an optically denser medium.

The extent of bending of light depends on the refractive index of the medium. Refractive index
() of a medium is defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to that in the medium.

That is,

Therefore, an optically denser medium has a higher refractive index than an optically rarer
medium. So, we can say that the refractive index of water is higher than that of air.

GrasshopperFrog Relation

Consider a situation where a frog is sitting inside

a pond (refractive index ), while a

grasshopper is sitting on a bush slightly above in
air (refractive index 1), as shown in the given
figure.

Two situations arise in this case.

Situation I

The grasshopper is looking towards the frog.

In this case, light is travelling from air to water.

The refractive index of air (1) is less than that
of water (2). Therefore, light gets slightly bent
towards the normal. Hence, the frog appears
closer to the grasshopper.

Situation II

The frog is looking towards the grasshopper.

In this case, light is travelling from a denser to a

rarer medium as the refractive index of water
(2) is greater than that of air (1). Therefore,
light will bend away from the normal. Hence, the
grasshopper appears farther to the frog.

Laws of Refraction
There are two laws of refraction.

First Law of Refraction

The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is constant. This
is known as Snells law. Mathematically, it is given as follows:

Here, is the relative refractive index of medium b with respect to medium a.

Second Law of Refraction

The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the interface of two media at the point of
incidence all lie in the same plane.

Refraction through a Glass Slab

diagram

So, what are the key points of the experiment?

When a light ray enters glass (denser medium) from air (rarer medium), it bends towards
the normal.
When a light ray emerges from the glass (denser medium) into air (rarer medium), it
bends away from the normal.

Hence, when a light ray is incident on a rectangular glass slab, the light emerges parallel to the
incident ray from the opposite side of the slab.

And when a light ray is incident on a glass slab normally, it gets out straight, without any
deflection, i.e., i = 0, r = 0.

Effects of Refraction

Refraction shows various effects in everyday life. Some of these effects are explained as under.

1. Real and Apparent Depth

Real depth the actual depth at which object is situated is called real depth.

Apparent depth the depth at which image of the object is formed is called apparent depth.
As we can see in the figure that b is denser medium than a thus the image formed is above the
position of the object.

2. Bending of Stick

On the similar principle of refraction we see the stick bend and shorten when immersed in water.

3. Raised beaker bottom

4. Twinkling of stars

Stars appear to twinkle due to refraction at various layers of the atmosphere.

Total Internal Reflection

Many of us have observed the upper surface of water seems silvery when seen from below. This is
due to the reflection of light at the surface. The phenomenon is called total internal reflection.

Figure shows how angle of incidence decides whether the light ray is going to reflect or refract.

The phenomenon due to which a ray of light, while travelling from optically denser medium to
optically rarer medium, gets reflected into the optically denser medium at the surface of
separation is called total internal reflection.

Critical angle is the angle of incidence in a denser medium for which angle of refraction in the
rarer medium is 90.

Conditions for total internal reflection

1. Rays of light must travel from optically denser medium to optically rarer medium.
2. Angle of incidence must be greater than critical angle.

Relation between refractive index and critical angle

Rays of light are travelling from denser medium b to rarer medium a.

Where C is the critical angle at which angle of refraction is 90

Critical angle for glass is 42

Critical angle for water is 48

Critical angle for diamond is 24

Refraction Through a Prism

A prism is a piece of glass with two triangular and three rectangular surfaces. The rectangular
surfaces are also called refracting surface and the angle between these surfaces is called the angle
of prism.

Any section of prism, perpendicular to refracting edge is called principal section of prism.
ABC shows a principal section of an equilateral prism, such that A is the angle of prism. The ray
GH is called emergent ray. The angle between emergent ray GH and normal GM is called angle of
emergence (e).

The angle between incident ray and the emergent ray is called angle of deviation. It is
represented by letter .

The value of angle of deviation produced by the prism depends on

1. Angle of incidence
2. Refractive index of material.
3. Colour or wavelength of incident light.
4. Angle of the prism.

Spherical Lenses

Ankit went to an optician and noticed different types of spectacles there. He observed that
while the glasses of some spectacles were relatively thicker in the middle, other glasses were
thicker on the edge. The glasses of these spectacles are examples of lenses.

A lens is a transparent material, bound by two curved surfaces. Lenses are broadly classified
into two categories depending on their surfaces.

However, we will discuss only double spherical lenses here.

Convex lens
A convex lens is made by joining two spherical surfaces in
such a way that it is thicker at the centre. Its thickness
gradually reduces as we move towards the edge.

A convex lens has the

ability to converge incident
light rays to a point. Thus,
it is called a converging
lens.

Concave lens

A concave lens is made by joining two curved surfaces

in such a way that it is thinner at the centre. Its
thickness gradually increases as we move towards the
edge.

A concave lens has the ability to

diverge a beam of light rays
incident on it. Thus, it is called a
diverging lens.

Differences between a spherical mirror and a lens

The following table lists some common differences between spherical mirrors and lenses.

Spherical mirror Spherical lens

Image is formed by reflection of light. Image is formed by refraction of light.

A spherical mirror has only one focus. A spherical lens has two foci.

The centre of the spherical mirror is The centre of the spherical lens is termed as
termed as its pole. its optical centre.

The second difference arises due to the fact that a lens has two spherical surfaces (i.e., it is
made from the arcs of two spheres of equal radius).Therefore, light is refracted twice before it
comes out of a lens.

Terms Associated with Lenses

Optical centre

Optical centre is a point at the centre of the lens. It always lies inside the lens, and not on the
surface. It is denoted by O.

Centre of curvature

It is the centre point of the arcs of the two spheres from which the given spherical lens
(concave or convex) is made. Since a lens constitutes two spherical surfaces, it has two
centres of curvature.

The distance of the optical centre from either of the centres of curvature is termed as the
radius of curvature.

Principal axis

The straight line joining the two centres of curvature and the optical centre (O) is called the
principal axis of the lens.
Hold a convex lens and direct it against sunlight. You will find a bright spot appear on the wall.
Can you explain the formation of this bright spot? Light, after refracting through the lens,
converges at a very sharp point. Try obtaining the brightest possible spot. Now, place a paper
on the wall and observe what happens in the next few minutes.

Focus

The focus (F) is the point on the principal axis where all incident parallel rays meet.

The distance between the focus (F1 or F2) and the optical centre (O) is known as the focal
length of the lens.

Refraction by Spherical Lenses

Refraction by a spherical lens can be categorised into three cases.

Case I:When the incident light ray is parallel to the principal axis

In this case, the refracted ray will pass through the second focus F2 for a convex lens, and
appear to diverge from the first focus F1 for a concave lens.

Case II: When the incident light ray emerges from the first focus F1of a convex lens,
or appears to emerge from the second focus F2 of a concave lens
 In this case, after refraction from both the lenses, light will move parallel to the principal axis.

Case III: When the light ray passes through the optical centre (O) of a lens

In this case, the light ray will pass through both the lenses without suffering any deviation.

Lens Formula

Usually, in image formation, we are interested in calculating the distance of the image formed
from the lens, size of the image, power of the lens, etc. These problems can be solved with
the help of the lens formula. For this, we use a set of sign conventions applicable to the refraction
of light by spherical lenses. In this convention, the optical centre (O) is treated as the origin.

Sign Conventions for Lenses

I. Object is always placed to the left of the lens, i.e., the light must fall on the lens from left to
right.

II. All distances parallel to the principal axis are measured from the optical centre of the lens.

III. Distances along the direction of the incident rays (along the positive x-axis) are taken as
positive, while distances opposite to the direction of the incident rays (along the negative x-axis)
are taken as negative.
IV. Distances measured above the principal axis (along the positive y-axis) are taken as positive.

V. Distances measured below the principal axis (along the negative y-axis) are taken as negative.

These sign conventions are represented in the following diagram:

The following table summarises the sign conventions for concave and convex lenses:

Image distance Height of image

Object Height of
Types of (v) Focal (HI)
distance object
lens length (f)
(u) (Ho)
Real Virtual Real Virtual

Convex Negative Positive Negative Positive Positive Negative Positive

Concave Negative * Negative Negative Positive * Positive

* A concave lens always forms a virtual image.

Lens Formula:

The lens formula is given by

Here,

f focal length of the spherical lens

v distance of the image from the optical centre

u distance of the object from the optical centre

Deepak takes a magnifying glass and tries
to look at some objects through it. He
observes that the objects look bigger than
their actual sizes. How is this possible?

The apparent changes in the sizes of the

objects are because of the magnification
produced by the lens.

Magnification

The magnification of a spherical lens gives the relative extent to which the image of an object is
magnified with respect to the object size.

Magnification is expressed by the ratio of the image height (HI) to the object height (HO).

Magnification (m) is also related to object distance (u) and image distance (v) by the relation

Hence, the magnification formula can be written as

If magnification is positive, the image will be virtual and erect.

If magnification is negative, the image will be real and inverted.