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Refraction

Refraction, Properties and examples and other optical phenomena's. Based on Holt McDougal Physics textbook.

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geethu
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8 views14 pages

Refraction

Refraction, Properties and examples and other optical phenomena's. Based on Holt McDougal Physics textbook.

Uploaded by

geethu
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 PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Refraction

Refraction
• Consider the image of the flower appear in the water droplet, it occurs because light is
bent at the boundary between the water and the air around it. Light bends when it moves
from one medium to another.

Refraction is the bending of a wave front as the wave front


passes between two substances in which the speed
of wave differs.

• https://youtu.be/SeaWCamCHWQ
• If light moves from one transparent medium to another at any angle other than
perpendicular to the interface, the light ray changes direction when it meets the boundary.

• The angle of incoming and refracted rays are measured with respect to the normal.

• The angle between the refracted ray and the normal


is called angle of refraction, Θr

• The angle between the incident ray and the normal


is called angle of incidence Θi
• The speed of light is different in different materials.

• Light passes through Glass, water, diamonds, and quartz, and all these transparent media have
different speed of light.
• When light travels from a material in which its speed is higher to a material in which its speed is lower,
such as air to glass, the ray bent toward the normal.

• When light travels from a material in which its speed is lower to a material in which its speed is higher,
such as glass to air, the ray bent away from the normal.
The law of refraction

• The index of refraction for a substance is the ration of the speed of light in a vacuum to
the speed of light in the given transparent medium.

Index of Refraction

n=
Index of refraction =

• Index of refraction is a dimensionless number that is always greater than one because
light always travels slower in a substance than in vacuum.
• Represented by the letter “n”
• Index of refraction of a material can be used to figure out how much a ray of light will be
refracted as it passes from one medium to another.
Object position and refraction

• Objects appear to be in different positions due to refraction

(a). To the cat on the pier, the fish looks


closer to the surface than it really is

(b) To the fish, the cat seems to be


farther from the surface than it actually
is.
• The fish and the cat see along the same path, however, the light ray that reaches the fish
forms a smaller angle with respect to the normal than does the light ray from the cat to the
water’s surface. because the light is bent toward the normal when it travels from air to water.
Extending this refracted ray along a straight line shows the cat’s image to be above the cat’s
actual position.

• The light ray that reaches the cat from the water’s surface forms a larger angle with respect
to the normal instead of a smaller one. This is because the light from the fish travels from a
medium with a higher index of refraction to one with a lower index of refraction. Extending
the refracted ray along a straight line shows the fish’s image to be above the fish’s actual
position.
Wavelength affects the index of refraction

• The amount of light bends when entering a different medium depends on the wavelength
of the light as well as speed.
• Each color of light has a different wavelength, so each color of the spectrum is refracted
by a different amount. This is how a spectrum is produced when white light passes
through a prism.
Snell’s law

• The index of refraction of a material can be used to figure out how much a ray of light will
be refracted as it passes from one medium to another.

• Greater the index of refraction, the more refraction occurs.

• In 1621, Willebrord Snell experimented with light passing through different media and
developed a relationship called Snell’s law.

• Snell’s law is used to find the angle of refraction for light travelling between any two
media.
Snell’s Law

ni sin ϴi = nr sin ϴr

ni= index of refraction of first medium


Sin ϴi =sine of the angle of incidence
nr= index of refraction of second medium
Sin ϴr =sine of the angle of refraction
A light ray of wavelength 589 nm travelling through air strikes a smooth, flat slab of crown
glass at an angle of 30.0˚ to the normal. Find the angle of refraction.(given refractive index
of air =1.00 and refractive index of crown glass =1.52)

Given
ϴi =30.0˚
ϴr =?
ni= 1.00
nr= 1.52

Using Snell's law ni sin ϴi = nr sin ϴr


1.00 * sin(30) = 1.52 * sin ϴr
sin ϴr = (1 * sin(30) )/1.52
= 1 * 0.5 / 1.52
=0.329
ϴr =sin-1(0.329)
= 19.2˚
The angle of refraction is 19.2˚
Q1.
Find few more examples of refraction

Q2.
Find the angle of refraction for a ray of light that enters a bucket of water from air at an angle of 25.0˚
to the normal. (refractive index of air =1.00 and refractive index of water =1.333).
Will light rays bent toward or away from the normal?

Q3.
A ray of light of vacuum wavelength 550 nm traveling in air enters a slab of transparent material. The
incoming ray makes an angle of 40.0˚ with the normal, and the refracted ray makes an angle of 26˚
with the normal. Find the index of refraction of the transparent material. (refractive index of air = 1.00)
Will light rays bent toward or away from the normal?

Q4.
In which of the following situations will light from a laser be refracted?
a. Traveling from air into a diamond at an angle of 30˚ to the normal
b. Traveling from water to ice along the normal
c. Upon striking a metal surface
d. Traveling from air into a glass of iced tea at an angle of 25˚ to the normal

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