"Total Internal Reflection"

Submitted by : Submitted to :

______________ _________________

Class - XII Lecturer in Physics

Certificate

This is to certify that the investigatory Project Report entitled “Total Internal Reflection” submitted by
student of Class XII is original and has been completed by him under my supervision and is completed in
all respect for AISSCE -2018-2019.

(Signature of Lecturer in Physics)

Contents

1. Certificate

2. Introduction

3. Total Internal Reflection

5. Relation between refractive index () and critical angle (C)

6. Applications of Total Internal Reflection

7. Uses

8. Bibliography

Introduction

Whenever a ray of incident light travels from one medium to another, its path is changed i.e. it gets
refracted.

If the ray travels from denser medium to rarer medium, it suffers deviation away from the normal at the
point of incidence. As the angle of incidence is increased, the angle of refraction also keeps on
increasing. At a certain angle of incidence, called the critical angle, the refracted ray grazes along the
surface of separation i.e. angle of refraction becomes just go. If the angle of incidence is further
increased, no refraction takes place. Instead such a ray gets reflection inside the medium itself. This
phenomenon is called total internal reflection.

Refraction :
The phenomenon of bending of light when it come from one medium to another medium is called
refraction.

Reflection :

The phenomenon in which a ray comes from one medium and bending of that ray in same medium i.e.
Total Internal Reflection takes place called reflection.

Total Internal Reflection

Total internal reflection is the phenomenon of reflection of light which occurs when a ray of light
traveling in a denser medium is incident at the interfere of the two media at an angle greater than the
critical angle for that pair of media.

Consider a surface xy separates the rarer medium a from the denser medium b. A ray of light OA from
the object O in denser medium incident normally on the surface of separation, gets refracted into the
rarer medium as such along AL. Another ray of light incident along the oblique path OA, is refracted away
from normal along the path A1B1 in rarer medium. As the angle of incidence is increased, the angle of
refraction also goes on increasing, till for a certain angle of incidence C, called the critical angle. When
angle of incidence is greater than critical angle then total internal reflection takes place.

Conditions for Total Internal Reflection

1. The ray incident on the interface should travel in optically denser medium.

2. The angle of incidence should be greater than the critical angle for the given pair of media.
Introduction

Relation between refractive index (m) and critical angle (C)

When refraction takes place at point C, it follows that the refractive index of medium a w.r.t. medium b is
given by

bma =

amb =

if i = c (critical angle)

r = 90o

amb =

Refractive index is inversely proportional to sin of critical angle.

Its relation with polarizing angle :

According to Brewster’s Law, when light is incident at polarizing angle at the interface of a refracting
medium, the refractive index of the medium is equal to the tengent of the polarizing angle.
If P is polarizing angle and u, the refractive index of the refracting medium, then u = tan P.

Applications of Total Internal Reflection

1. Totally Reflection Prism :

To deviate a ray of light through 90o and 180o.

A right angled isosceles prism can be used to cause total internal reflection. In such a right angled prism
when a ray of light is incident normally to its face AB, it passes into prism as incidence is 45o. But for
glass (m = 1.5), the value of critical angle is about 41.8o. Since the value of incident angle is greater than
the critical angle for glass, the ray of right suffers total internal refection. As a result, it gets incident on
the force AC at 90o and comes out of the prism as such. It follows that the path of the ray of right was
been deviated by the prism through 90o.

The path of a ray undergoing a deviation of 90o due to one internal reflection but in same way and by
same process due to two internal reflection, a ray can be deviated through 180o. This arrangement is
used in prism-binoculars.

Advantages of Totally Reflecting Prism over the Silvered Plane Mirror.

A reflecting prism does not require any silvering.

A silvered plane mirror always absorbs some light. In a good mirror, the reflection of light about 90-95%.
However, in a reflecting prism, almost 100% reflection is secured.
Due to imperfect and non-uniform silvering of the mirror, the image obtained with a mirror is oftenly not
of a good quality.

2. Mirage :

It is an optical illusion observed in desert in a hot day. The object such as tree is observed inverted and
observer gets an impression that there is a pool of water. This phenomena is known as mirage.

Due to intense heat, the surface of earth becomes quite hot and the temperature of air near the surface
of earth is max. The temp of the other layers of the air goes on decreasing as one goes up. Dimity as well
as refractive index of air increases slightly for higher layers. Thus a ray of light traveling from point O of a
tree passes through air of gradually decreasing refractive index and is therefore refracted more and more
away from the normal and accordingly the angle of incidence goes on increasing. At a layer, when the
angle of incidence becomes greater than the critical angle, total internal reflection takes place. Then the
ray of light starts traversing layers of increasing refractive index and goes on bending more and more
towards the normal. Ultimately, when the ray reaches the eye of the observer, it appears to be coming
from the point I. Hence the inverted image of the tree produces the impression of reflection from a pool
of water.

3. Brilliance of Diamonds and Other Precious Stones :

Diamond shines very brightly because it has a very high refractive index and very low critical angle i.e. =
2.47 & C = 230 . Dur to low critical angle, a diamond cut so as to have a large number of faces, such that
a ray of light entering it from one face undergoes repeated total internal reflections from other faces. As
a result, the faces through which the light emerges, shine very brilliantly.

4. Optical Fibres :

In 1870, John Tyndall, a British physicist demonstrated that light could be made to follow curved path
along a thin stream of water coming out of a water tank. This effect was made use of an illuminated
fountains. The light follows curved path it suffers a series of total internal reflections.
Optical fibres commits of thousands of strands of a very fine quality glass or quartz of refractive index
about 1.7 or so. The thickness of a strand is about 10-6 cm. The strands are coated with a layer of some
material of lower refractive index (m=1.5).

When light is incident at a small angle at are end, it gets refracted into strands and gets incident on the
interface of the fibres and the coating. The angle of incidence being greater than critical angle, the ray of
light undergoes total internal reflections. Each fibre act as a pipe and such a bundle of fibres can be used
to convey images along paths of any shape. The optical fibre does not bend light. Instead, light follows
the zin-zag path through the fibres.

5. Looming :

It is an optical illusion observed in the cold countries. In which observers get an impression that object is
placed in air.

Uses

i) Optical fibres are used inn the field of communication and the computers.

ii) The optical fibres are used for making medical investigation.

iii) The optical fibre sensors have been used to measure temperature and pressure.

iv) The optical are used for transmitting the optical signals and the two dimensional pictures.
v) The optical fibre in the form of photometric sensors are used for measuring the blood flow in the
heart.

vi) The optical fibre in the form of refract meters are used to determine the refractive indices of liquids.

vii) Optical fibre are used in telephone and other transmitting cables.

viii) Optical fibre are used in transmission and reception of electrical signals by converting them first into
light signal.

Bibliography

1. Modern’s abc of Physics.

2. Pradeep’s Fundamental Physics.

3. Dinesh a to z in Physics.