Refraction of Light at Plane Surfaces

Figure below show two rays A and B travelling from water to air. If the critical angle for water- air surface is 48°, complete the ray diagram showing the refracted rays for each. State conditions when the ray will suffer total internal reflection.

Solution ; There are two prerequisites for total introspective reflection: (i) Light must pass through a denser media before reaching a rarer medium. (ii) The incidence angle must be larger than or...

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Water in a pond appears to be only three-quarters of its actual depth. (a) What property of light is responsible for this observation? Illustrate your answer with the help of a ray diagram. (b) How is the refractive index of water calculated from its real and apparent depths?

Solutions: (a) This observation is due to refraction of light. Light is bent away from the normal due to refraction from a denser media to a rarer medium. (b) Assume that an object B is located at...

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A light ray of yellow colour is incident on an equilateral glass prism at an angle of incidence equal to 48o and suffers minimum deviation by an angle of 36o. (i) What will be the angle of emergence? (ii) If the angle of incidence is changed to (a) 30o, (b) 60o, state whether the angle of deviation will be equal to less than or more than 36o.

Solution: (i) We know that the ray suffers minimum deviation in an equilateral prism. So we can write i1 = i2 Therefore, i2 = 480 (ii) (a) If the incidence angle is increased to 30 degrees ,...

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A monochromatic ray of light passes from air to glass. The wavelength of light in air is λ, the speed of light in air is c and in glass is v. If the refractive index of glass is 1.5, write down (a) the relationship between c and v, (b) the wavelength of light in the glass.

Solution: (a) Expression of the relation between the speed of light (c) in the air and in glass (v) is as follows - μ = c / v or we can write c = 1.5 v (b) Let the wavelength of light in glass be...

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A light ray in passing from water to a medium (a) speeds up (b) slows down. In each case, (i) give one example of the medium, (ii) State whether the refractive index of a medium is equal to, less than or greater than the refractive index of water.

Solution: (a) When a light ray travels from water to air, it accelerates. (b) A light ray slows down as it travels from water to a glass medium. (c) It means that when the speed increases, the...

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