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Lab Report - Experiment No 2

1) The experiment aims to verify Snell's law of refraction using a laser, glass slab, paper and protractor. 2) Measurements are taken of the incident and refracted angles for light passing from air into glass. 3) Calculations using Snell's law show the refractive index of glass is approximately 1.61, which is close to the accepted value of 1.5 and verifies Snell's law.

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Jawad Haider
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213 views4 pages

Lab Report - Experiment No 2

1) The experiment aims to verify Snell's law of refraction using a laser, glass slab, paper and protractor. 2) Measurements are taken of the incident and refracted angles for light passing from air into glass. 3) Calculations using Snell's law show the refractive index of glass is approximately 1.61, which is close to the accepted value of 1.5 and verifies Snell's law.

Uploaded by

Jawad Haider
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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Experiment No.

2
TO VERIFY SNELL’S LAW
Purpose
The objective of this is experiment is to verify the law of reflection, which says that the
incident ray refracted ray and the normal, all lies in the same plane and Snell’s law,
which says the ratio of sine of angle of incidents to the sign of angle of refraction is
constant for the light of a given color, and for the given pair of media
sin 𝑖
= Constant
sin 𝑟
--------------------------------------------

Apparatus
• Laser
• Glass slab
• A4 paper
• Protector
• Pencil
• Common pin

Theory
Angle of incidence
In geometric optics the angle of incidence is the angle between a ray incident on a
surface and the line perpendicular to the surface at a point of incidence called the
normal.
Angle of refraction
The angle between a refracted ray and align drawn normal to the interface between two
media at a point of refraction.
Laser
Laser is a device that stimulates atoms or molecules to emit light at wavelengths and
amplifies the light, typically providing a very narrow beam of radiation.
Glass slab
A substance that made-up of clause having three dimensions and is like cuboid shaped.
It does not deviate the light. This means that the incident and emergent ray are parallel.
The slab only produces lateral shift or displacement.
Protector
A measuring instrument typically made of transparent plastic for measurement of
angles.
When the light propagates from one medium to another the ray bends towards
or away from the normal in the second medium which way or how much it bends
depends on the optical density of the material or medium defined by refractive index n
of the medium.
A perfect vacuum has refractive index of 1.00 air, because of low density has refractive
index close to 1.00. A glass slab has a refractive index of 1.5.
When light goes from a rare medium to a denser medium (n1<n2). It will bend towards
the normal the angle of refraction θ2 in second medium will be less than angle of
incidence θ1 in the first medium on the other hand, when light goes from denser to rare
medium (n1<n2). It will bend away from normal.
In this experiment, light is traveling from air into glass and then emerge back into the air
here (n1<n2) therefore refracted ray bends towards the normal. This reflected ray now
goes from glass to air and bends away from the normal.

Procedure
1) We placed the glass block in the middle of A4 paper so that its sides are parallel
to each of the sides of the paper and draw around the block with a pencil to
make it outline on the piece of paper.
2) Then we turned on the laser and directed the light ray towards the glass slab so
that it makes the angle with nearest surface.
3) We merged the incident and refracted ray on the paper with paper pins and
removed the paper pins afterwards and traced the ray with scale and pencil.
4) Then we switched off the laser and removed the glass block from the paper used
the ruler to join the dots of incoming ray.
5) Then we joined the dots of outgoing ray, and lastly draw a line which joins the
point where incoming ray hits the block this was the part of the light ray through
glass.
6) Then with the help of protector, we measured the angle of incidence and angle of
refraction.
7) Lastly from the Snell’s law n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2 we calculated refractive index of
glass.

Observations

Reading No. Incident Angle Reflected Angle Refractive Index


(Degree) (Degree)
------------------------ --------------------------- --------------------------- ---------------------------

1 30° 17° 1.71

2 40° 24° 1.58

3 50° 30° 1.53

Calculations
(Reading 1) (Reading 2) (Reading 3)
n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2 n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2 n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2

1 sinθi = n2 sinθr 1 sinθi = n2 sinθr 1 sinθi = n2 sinθr


𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝟑𝟎°) 𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝟒𝟎°) 𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝟓𝟎°)
n2 = n2 = n2 =
𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝟏𝟕°) 𝐬𝐢𝐧⁡(𝟐𝟒°) 𝒔𝒊𝒏(𝟑𝟎°)

n2 = 1.71 n2 = 1.58 n2 = 1.53


Results
The refractive index of glass is 1.61.
𝟏.𝟕𝟏+𝟏.𝟓𝟖+𝟏.𝟓𝟑⁡
Average value =
𝟑

= 1.61
𝟏.𝟓−𝟏.𝟔𝟏⁡
Percentage error = 100
𝟏.𝟔𝟏

= 0.0683 x 100
=6.8 %

Conclusion
The ray of refraction is verified i.e.
1) The incident ray refracted ray and the normal, all lies in same plane.
2) Snell's law is proved……….
sin 𝑖
= Constant
sin 𝑟

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