1.

The Ray Model of light

The Ray Model of light assumes that light travels in straight-line paths called light rays. A ray
represents an extremely low beam of light. When viewing an object, light reaches our eyes from
each point on the object. Only small bundle of rays can enter the pupil of an observer’s eye and
rays leaves each point on the object in different directions (Fig 1). Any position change of the
eyes a different bundle of rays would enter the pupil. The Ray Model also describes many
aspects of light such as reflection, refraction and the formation of images by mirrors and lenses
because of the assumption that light travels in a straight line at various angles. This is known as
Geometric optics.

Fig 1

Light rays come from each point of an object. A small bundle of rays leaving one point is shown
entering a person’s eye.

Reflection; Image formation by a Plane mirror

Light is both reflected and absorb when it hits the surface an object. The degree of reflection and
absorbance is dependent on the property of the object. The angle of incidence is the angle an
incident ray makes with the normal to the surface and the angle of reflection is the angle the
reflected ray makes with the normal. This is for the case when a narrow beam of light hits the
surface of an object. The angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence and the incident
and reflected rays lie in the same plane with the normal to the surface (law of reflection).

Diffuse reflection is the reflection of light from a surface such that a ray incident on the surface
(rough) is scattered at many angles rather than at just one angle. Due to the diffuse reflection in
all direction, some objects can be seen and multiple angles. Light can only reach one’s eye when
a beam of light shines on a mirror unless the law of reflection is satisfied and for this reason the
special image-forming properties of mirrors exist. When you look in mirror, you see an image of
yourself and objects around you but you don’t see yourself as others see you. This is because left
and right appear reversed in the mirror. Viewing an object in a plane mirror (smooth flat
reflecting), rays from two different points on the object leave each point on the object going in
many directions. An image is seen when the enclosed bundle of rays enters the eye from the
mirror which appears to come from a single point.

Index of Refraction

Index of refraction (n) a material is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to the speed (v) in a
given material.

Speed of light in vaccum is approximately (c) 3.00 x 108 m/s

The speed of light in materials such as glass and water (3/4c) but is always less in vacuum but
slightly in air

c
n= eq ..1
v

The index of refraction is never less than 1 and values for various materials are usually given/
known (e.g water – n=1.33). n varies with the wavelength of light except in vacuum, thus a
particular wavelength is specificed for the given index of refraction. For example water index of
refraction is 1.33 with wavelength λ = 589nm (yellow light). When this principle of
measurement is used it may be defined as the sine of the angle of incidence divided by the sine
of the angle of refraction. This is referred to as the Snell’s law

Figure: 2
 (a) Light refracted when passing from air (n1) into water (n2):n2>n1
(b) Light refracted when passing from water (n1) into air (n2): n1>n2

Refraction

Refraction is the bending of the path of a light wave as it passes across the boundary separating
two media. Refraction is caused by the change in speed experienced by a wave when it changes
medium.
Angle of refraction and incidence

The angle of refraction ¿2) is the angle the refracted ray makes with the normal of the surface
while the angle of incidence (Angle ϴ 1) is angle the incident ray makes with the normal to the
surface. Whenever a ray enters a medium where the speed of light is less, the ray bends towards
the normal when upon entry (Fig 2a). If the reverse occurs (speed of light greater), the ray bends
away from the normal (Fig 2b- from water to air). A typical real life example would be someone
appearing to have shortened legs whose standing in waist height water is of a result of refraction.
This is because the rays leaving the person’s foot are bent at the surface and the eye of an
observer brain assumes that the ray travelled in a straight line path

Snell’s Law – Law of Refraction

n1sinϴ 1=n2sinϴ 2 equ… 2

Where,

ϴ 1- angle of incidence,ϴ 2 -angle of refraction,

n1 and n2 are the respective indices of refraction in the materials (Fig 2).

Based on this equation, the angle of refraction is dependent on the speed of light in two media
and the incident angle.

Snell’s law shows (Fig 2):

 if n2>n1, then ϴ 2<ϴ 1 - the light enters a medium where n is greater, the ray is bent toward the
normal.
 if n2<n1, then ϴ 2>ϴ 1, so the ray bends away from the normal.

This law is used in ray tracing to compute the angles of incidence or refraction and in
experimental optics to find the refractive index of a material.

Total Internal Reflection Fiber Optics

When light passes from one material into a second material where the index of refraction is less,
the refracted light ray bends away from the normal. The critical angle ϴ C is when the angle of
refraction is 900 and the refracted ray removed from the surface.

From Snell’s Law ϴ C is given by

Sin ϴ C = n2/n1 equ…. 3

If ϴ i<ϴ C - A refracted ray will be present and

If ϴ i>ϴ C - No refracted ray and all the light is reflected (internal reflection)

Total internal reflection occurs only when light strikes a boundary where the medium beyond has
a lower index of refraction.

Critical angle equation can be used to predict the critical angle for any boundary, provided that
the indices of refraction of the two materials on each side of the boundary are known.

Fiber optics; Medical Instruments

Fiber optics is built on the principles of total internal reflections. A light pipe is a transparent
fiber than is very thin in diameter (micrometers). Theses fibers are commonly used in
communications (telephone calls and video signals) and in medicine. Light is transmitted along
these fibers with no loss of total internal reflection which is better than the use of copper wire. In
the medical field theses fibers are used to transmit a clear picture during diagnosis for example
using colonoscopies to view the colon.

Thin Lenses; Ray Tracing

Thin lens are usually circular and its two faces are portions of a sphere. The focal point is the
image point for an object at infinity on the lens and can be found by locating the point where the
sun’s rays are brought to a sharp image. The distance of the focal point from the center of the
lens is called the focal length, f. The focal length is the same on both sides of a lens and as such
light can pass through on either side even if the curvatures of two lenses are different. If parallel
rays fall on a lens at an angle, they focus at a point Fa. The plane containing all focus points (F
and Fa) is known as the focal plane of the lens. (Fig 3)

Fig 3

Parallel rays at an angle focused on the focal plane

The Power (P) of a lens

The power of a lens is defined as the reciprocal of the focal length (most important parameter)
and is measured in Diopters (D).

P= 1/f equ…. 4

An important application of using the power of the lenses is in optometry. Optometrists

A Ray diagram is a diagram that traces the path that light takes in order for a person to view a
point on the image of an object. On the diagram, rays (lines with arrows) are drawn for the
incident ray and the reflected ray. (Fig 4)

Fig 4
 (a) Ray 1 goes out from O’ parallel to the axis and reflects through F

(b) Ray 2 goes through F and the back parallel to the axis

( c) Ray 3 is perpendicular to mirror, and so must reflect back on itself and go through C

The thin Lens Equation

This equation relates the image distance (di) to the object distance (d0) and the focal length of a
thin lens. In addition this equation is better to use than doing ray tracing since ot determine the
image position quicker and more accurately.

Convergent Lens (Positive lens)

This lens is thicker at the centre than at the edges and can produce inverted images or virtual
images depending on object position. (Fig 5)

Fig 5
Thin Lens equation for converging lens

1/f -1/di = 1/d0 equ..5

This equation relates the image distance di to the object distance d0 and the focal length f. If the
object is at infinity, then 1/d0 = 0, so di=f. thus the focal length is the image distance for an object
at infinity.

Divergent Lens (Negative lens)

This lens is thinner in the center than at the edges and always produces an upright virtual image
for any real object, no matter where the object is. (Fig 6)

Fig 6

Thin Lens equation for diverging lens

The thin lens equation for diverging lens becomes the same as converging lens if f and di
negative when the image is on the same side of the lens as the light comes from. The following
sign conventions if used, equ 6 can be valid for both converging and diverging lenses.

- The focal length is positive for the converging lenses and negative for diverging lenses.
- The object distance is positive if the object is on the side of the lens from which the light
is coming, otherwise, it is negative.
- The image distance is positive if the image is on the opposite side of the lens from where
the light is coming; if it is on the same side, di is negative. Equivalently, the image
distance is positive for a real image (fig 6 ) and negative for a virtual image (fig 6 ). A
- The height of the image, hi, is positive if the image is upright, and negative if the image is
inverted relative to the object (h0 is always taken as upright and positive).

The Thin lens formula is applicable to all situations with appropriate sign convections. This is
lens formula is applicable to both concave and convex lens. This equation is used to find image
distance for either real (+ve) or virtual image (-ve)

Magnification of Lens (m)

This is the ratio of the image height to object height, m=hi/h0.

m=hi/h0 = -di/d0

m= +ve – for an upright image

m= -ve – for an inverted image

Combinations of lenses

Lenses can be used in combination and this practice is commonly used by optical instruments.
As light passes through multiple lenses, the final image is found by first finding the image form
by the first lens which then becomes the object for the proceeding lens. The final image is the
last image produce by the last lens. In a case where two lenses are used the final image is the
second image. The total magnification (m) of the image is the product of the individual
magnifications of the lens.