Scribd
Upload
3 views2 pages

Refractive Index

Uploaded by

solankishubh2007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
3 views2 pages

Refractive Index

Uploaded by

solankishubh2007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

F RONTLINE

Where teachers share ideas and teaching solutions with the wider physics teaching community: contact [email protected]

T ECHNICAL T RIMMINGS
Share interesting experiments, ways of demonstrating physics and pieces of apparatus that you can build.

Measuring the refractive index of


a liquid using a laser
A glass plate such as a microscope slide is placed in a thickness of the liquid layer for the points M1 and M 2
shallow tray on a table. The glass must be perfectly to be resolved. The experiment can be repeated for
horizontal as verified with a spirit level—we used a lit- different angles of incidence and for different thick-
tle Blu-tack under the glass to level it. A (He–Ne) laser nesses of liquid layer. Four measurements of the re-
is reflected off the surface of the glass to produce a spot fractive index of water gave an average value of 1.325
of light on a vertical wall (see figure 1). The position ± 0.02.
of this spot, N, is marked on a piece of paper stuck to Since this method does not require the refractive in-
the wall. dex of the glass, it could further be improved to meas-

Figure 1.

Without moving any of the apparatus pour a little of ure the refractive index of liquids instantly. This method
the liquid into the tray to make a thin layer on the glass. might be very suitable for measuring the refractive
You should then get two spots appearing on the wall: index of the liquids in production plants where the
one from the reflection on the surface of the liquid (M2 ) liquids are produced in bulk. Various other simple
and one from the beam which refracts through the liq- experiments can be performed using this arrangement.
uid and reflects from the glass (M1 ): see figure 2. The For example, it will be very interesting to verify the
thickness of the liquid layer may vary from a few mil- formula NM2 = 2t experimentally. Students could
limetres to a couple of centimetres. also vary the angle of incidence and can measure OD
The incident angle θ of the laser beam is easily found and ON to prove formula (2) and plot a graph of OD
by measuring OD and ON (see figure 1): against ON for different angles of incidence.
tan θ = OD/ON.
Acknowledgment
It can be shown from Snell’s law (see Box 1) that the Financial support from the Abdus Salam International
refractive index of the liquid can be determined by Centre for Theoretical Physics (AS-ICTP), the Third
measuring the distances on the wall M 2 M1 and NM 2 . World of Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and the
Assuming that the air has a refractive index of 1, the University of Namibia (UNAM) is gratefully ac-
liquid has a relative refractive index n given by (see knowledged. Thanks to one of my 4th year students
figure 2) (Rudolph Mocke) for verifying the theory and the
results.
sin[tan−1 (OD/ON)]
n= .
sin{tan−1 [(M2 M1 /NM2 )OD/ON]} S Singh
Department of Physics, University of Namibia,
It should be noted that there is a minimum necessary Windhoek, Namibia

152 P H YSI C S E D U C AT I O N March 2002


F RONTLINE
Where teachers share ideas and teaching solutions with the wider physics teaching community: contact [email protected]

Figure 2.

Box 1

If we assume the angle of incidence to be θ and the Comparison of (6b) and (3) gives
angle of refraction α, then using Snell’s law,
NM2 = 2t . (7)
n 1 sin θ = n 2 sin α
Equation (7) can also be obtained directly from
⇒ n 2 = n 1 (sin θ/ sin α) (1) the triangle BCD. Since  BDC =  BCD (since
 CBR =  RBD ),
where n 1 and n 2 are the refractive indices of air and
the experimental liquid respectively. From similar NM2 = DC = 2OO1 = OM2 − ON = 2t . (8)
triangles in figure 1, one can easily see that
Now from equation (4)
tan θ = OD/ON . (2)
tan α = BR/2t (9a)
Using the triangle BDS, it can be shown from = (O1 B − O1 R)/2t (9b)
figure 2 that = (O1 M2 tan θ − O1 M1 tan θ)/2t (9c)

BS = 2t tan θ . (3) = (O1 M2 − O1 M1 ) tan θ/2t (9d)


= M2 M1 tan θ/2t . (9e)
Similarly from the triangle BPR, we have
Using (2) for tan θ and (7) for 2t gives
BR = 2t tan α . (4)
tan α = M2 M1 (OD/ON)/NM2 . (10)
Also from the triangles O1 SN and O1 BM2
Now substituting equations (2) and (10) into
O1 S = O1 N tan θ (5a) equation (1) and taking n 1 = 1 we find

O1 B = O1 M2 tan θ . (5b) sin[tan−1 (OD/ON)]


n2 = . (11)
sin{tan−1 [(M2 M1 /NM2 )OD/ON]}
Therefore, from (5a) and (5b)

O1 B − O1 S = (O1 M2 − O1 N) tan θ (6a) This equation is independent of the distance OP. The
distance OD can be measured easily. The distances
⇒ BS = NM2 tan θ . (6b) ON, NM 2 and M 2 M1 occurring in the formula can
easily be measured on the wall of the lab.

March 2002 P H YSI C S E D U C AT I O N 153

You might also like