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Describe An Experiment To Illustrate The Laws of Reflection. - Enotes

An experiment to illustrate the laws of reflection would involve placing a plane mirror on a sheet of paper and tracing its outline. A normal line perpendicular to the mirror's edge would then be drawn. Pins would be arranged along incident rays striking the mirror at various angles, and their reflections noted to form reflected rays. By measuring the angles of incidence and reflection, it could be shown that the two angles are equal, verifying the first law of reflection. The pins, normal, and rays all lying in the same plane would demonstrate the second law.

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5K views3 pages

Describe An Experiment To Illustrate The Laws of Reflection. - Enotes

An experiment to illustrate the laws of reflection would involve placing a plane mirror on a sheet of paper and tracing its outline. A normal line perpendicular to the mirror's edge would then be drawn. Pins would be arranged along incident rays striking the mirror at various angles, and their reflections noted to form reflected rays. By measuring the angles of incidence and reflection, it could be shown that the two angles are equal, verifying the first law of reflection. The pins, normal, and rays all lying in the same plane would demonstrate the second law.

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Alyssum Marie
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Describe an experiment to illustrate the laws of re ection.

Student Answers
priwork | Student

There are two laws of reflection 

First law :-  When a light ray strikes a plane mirror, the light ray reflects off the mirror.
Reflection involves a change in direction of the light ray.The angle of incidence is the angle
between this normal line and the incident ray; the angle of reflection is the angle between
this normal line and the reflected ray. According to the law of reflection, the angle of
incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Second Law :- Incident ray, Reflected ray and the normal at the point of incidence lie in
the same plane.

Experiment

Objective :- To prove the law of reflection through a plane mirror.

Things required:- Soft board, white sheet of paper , optical pins , mirror , pencil, protactor
and ruler .

Method :- 

1- Place the paper on the board and fix 

2- Place the mirror vertically on the white sheet of paper and trace its edge.

3- Draw a line at right angles to the edge of the edge of the mirror to act as the normal- ON .

4- Stating with angle i as 30 degree , draw an incident ray and place two pins, P and Q along it
as shown

5- With your eyes at position shown, place two other pins R and S to coincide with the images
of P and Q as seen in the mirror

6- Remove pins R and S and join the dots left with a straight line

7-Measure and record angle r.

8- Repeat procedure 4,5,6 and 7for angles i = 35 degree, 40 degree, 45 degree, 50 degree and
55 degree.
Record the results in a table.

On carefully observing the result on will clearly see that :-

1-The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

2- Incident ray, Reflected ray and the normal at the point of incidence lie in the same plane.

Hence the laws of reflection prooved :)

Images:

llltkl | Student

The laws of reflection governs the reflection of light rays off smooth conducting surfaces
such as polished metal or metal-coated glass mirrors. It state that:

1. The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the surface of the mirror all lie in the
same plane.

2. The angle of incidence <i is equal to the angle of reflection <r, both angles are measured
with respect to the normal to the mirror.

The experiment to verify these laws is as follows:

Apparatus required: a drawing board, a white sheet of paper, a few common pins and a
plane mirror.

Procedure: Pin the white sheet of paper firmly on the drawing board. Place the plane mirror
on it and trace its outline on the paper. Then remove the mirror and draw the 'normal. ' The
normal is the 90 degrees vertical line drawn to the outline of the mirror.
Now place the mirror again on the outline. The normal will be reflected clearly on the
mirror.
Next place two pins in a straight line on one side of the normal on the white sheet of paper.
Next place two pins on the other side of the normal in such a way that these two pins are in a
straight line with the reflection of the two pins on the other side of the normal.
Now remove the mirror and the pins and join the pin marks to the normal.
It will be seen that the angles which the lines make on both sides of the normal will be equal
(refer to the attached image). So, if one line represents the incident ray - the ray which is
travelling from the source of light - and the other line represents the reflected ray - the ray of
light which has been reflected - it is proved that the angle which the incident ray makes to
the normal is always equal to the angle which the reflected ray makes to the normal i. e. <i=
<r
Since the lines representing the normal and the incident and reflected rays are all
represented on the sheet of plain paper, the incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal
are coplanar.
Images:
Image (1 of 1)

check Approved by eNotes Editorial

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