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Reflection and Refraction of Light

The document discusses various optical phenomena including reflection, refraction, lenses, mirrors, dispersion of light, and color. It provides explanations of key concepts such as the laws of reflection, refractive index, critical angle, and magnification. Diagrams are included to illustrate concepts such as the structure of mirrors, total internal reflection, and light dispersion through a prism.

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Arman Akram
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267 views44 pages

Reflection and Refraction of Light

The document discusses various optical phenomena including reflection, refraction, lenses, mirrors, dispersion of light, and color. It provides explanations of key concepts such as the laws of reflection, refractive index, critical angle, and magnification. Diagrams are included to illustrate concepts such as the structure of mirrors, total internal reflection, and light dispersion through a prism.

Uploaded by

Arman Akram
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reflection and

Refraction of Light
Ray and Beam
Reflection of Light
Reflection is the change in direction of a wave front
at an interface between two different media so that
the wave front returns into the medium from which
it originated.
Laws of Reflection

Laws of reflection are:

(i)The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal ray at the point

of incidence, lie in the same plane.

(ii)The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.


What concave mirror is used
for?
 Concave mirrors are used
in reflecting telescopes. They
are also used to provide a
magnified image of the face for
applying make-up or shaving
What concave mirror is used
for?
 Inside buildings. You might have noticed
that large office buildings, stores,
hospitals, and other many other buildings
have convex mirrors in the corners. ...
 Sunglasses. We might have used sunglasses
many times. ...
 Vehicle mirrors.
 Magnifying glasses. ...
 For security purposes. ...
 Street light reflectors
Structure of Mirror
Magnification
 Magnification refers to an action of magnifying

something. Furthermore, it refers to enlarging the

apparent size and not the physical size.


Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of
a wave passing from one medium to
another or
Refractive Index
Measure of the bending

of a ray of light when

passing from one

medium into another


Critical Angle
the greatest angle at which a ray of light, travelling

in one transparent medium,


Total internal Reflection
complete reflection of a ray of light within a medium such as
water or glass from the surrounding surfaces back into the
medium.
Dispersion of white light
Speed of light in glass depends on frequency
(colour).
Dispersion of white light
With a diffraction grating
Light sources
filament lamp

a fluorescent lamp
(these differ)

• 700 nanometres • 400 nanometres


• 0.7 thousandths of a millimetre • 0.4 thousandths of a millimetre
Photo credit http://home.comcast.net/~mcculloch-brown/astro/spectrostar.html
Astronomical spectroscopy

Spectra of stars at different points in the sky


When a source is moving …

Moving source of sound - Doppler effect

Local spiral galaxy rotating

Cosmological redshift
Beyond the visible

detecting infrared radiation

detecting UV radiation

modern astronomy: collecting radiation from


across the whole electromagnetic spectrum
Modelling light
The journey from light source to detector can be
thought of in three different ways.
– rays
– waves
– photons
Pinhole camera

This 1544 diagram shows how to


safely view a solar eclipse.
Shadows … and ray streaks
Demonstrations and discussion about rays.

In pairs:
1 Explain shadow formation using a ray model.
Use words from this list: emit, transmit,
absorb, reflect.

2 Sketch a diagram to show how ray streaks


are made by a ray-box with slit openings.
Write an explanation of why these are not
rays.
Reflection
For light,
angle of incidence i = angle of reflection r
angles measured with respect to a ‘normal’

Waves and particles are reflected in


exactly the same way.
Total internal reflection
At a boundary between two optical media, typically some
light is reflected from the surface and some is
refracted into it e.g. the multiple images seen in glass
shop-fronts.
Going from a slower medium (e.g. glass) to a faster
medium (e.g. air), when the angle of incidence is
greater than a critical angle, all of the light is internally
reflected.

sin i 1

sin r nglass
Two kinds of lenses
1. Converging, convex, positive.

1. Diverging, concave, negative.

focal length, f, and power, P, describe how much a lens bends


light. Units of f metres, of P dioptres.
1
f 
P
Describing images
real image: Converging rays arrive at the image position, so an
image will be formed on a screen placed there.
virtual image: Diverging or parallel rays make light appear to
come from the image position. The eye creates an image but it
cannot be captured on a screen placed at the apparent
position of the image.
[To understand this you must first understand how the eye works.]

Compared to the object:


• upright or inverted?
• larger, same size or smaller?
What happens if …

• the convex lens is removed?


• a cardboard mask covers half of the lens?
• the screen is moved forward or back?
Converging lens, real image
C21 ppt P7.3 Ray diagrams

Virtual Physics Laboratory simulation

Don Evans Refraction by lenses presentation

A caution: For convenience, ray diagrams showing


image formation use just 2 or 3 rays. Lenses act on
a cone of light.
Diverging lens, virtual image
Human eye with 20:20 vision
Long sight

freezeray.com
Short sight

freezeray.com
Seeing a real image
Seeing a virtual image
Virtual image with a plane mirror

In pairs,
Do McDermott experiment 2.4
Practical session
• Image formation with a lens, comparing short
cameras and long cameras
• Experiments with a fan of rays
• Pinhole camera and lens camera
• Depth of field for a camera
• Law of refraction
• Model eye demonstration with flask
• The lens formula
(all from the Practical Physics website)
Astronomical telescope

Practical Physics: Making a telescope


Spherical aberration
Arecibo radio telescope, Puerto Rico
Reflecting telescopes

use a parabolic mirror


Two kinds of colour
1. Coloured lights (emission is additive)
2. Pigments and filters (absorption is
subtractive)

Demonstration and discussion.


Virtual Physics Laboratory simulation.
Phet simulation Color Vision, with
accompanying question sheet.
Colour – a teaching order
In pairs:
Given these three things to teach, in what order would
you choose to present them? Discuss.

colour filters the appearance of white light, pigments


and/or objects under different (primary, secondary
pigments colours of light colours)

Keep encouraging students to use the terms transmit,


absorb, reflect.
Support, references
talkphysics.org
SPT 11-14 Light & sound
1 Seeing with light
2 Modelling light with ray diagrams
3 Reflection and refraction
4 Colours of two kinds

Practical Physics website, Optics topic

Freezeray.com

David Sang (ed, 2011) Teaching secondary physics ASE / Hodder

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