JEE NEET MHT-CET - 2025 Section 2

Ray Optics

Sec 2 : Refraction of light

Prof. Hemant Kadam

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Definition: When a monochromatic ray of light travels from one transparent
medium into another transparent medium, its direction (path) changes (except for
normal incidence). This phenomenon is called refraction of light .

LAWS OF REFRACTION

(i) The incident ray, normal and the refracted

ray, all lie in the same plane.
Medium-1
(ii) For given pair of media, the ratio of the
sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of
the angle of refraction is constant.
This constant is called refractive index (R.I.)
of medium 2 with respect to (w.r.t.)
medium 1. ( 𝝁 𝒐𝒓 𝒏)

Snell’s Law
 ANGLE OF DEVIATION ()

1. When a ray of light travels from 2. When a ray of light travels from
optically rarer medium to optically optically denser medium to optically
denser medium, then it bends rarer medium, it bends away from the
towards the normal. normal.
Types of Refractive Index :

Normal 𝟏 :

i
Vacuum/Air

Denser medium
r
Normal 𝟐 :

i
medium-1
medium-2
r
NOTE :
Quantity Symbol
1. Speed of light 𝑽
2. Wavelength of light 𝝀
3. Frequency of light 𝝂
Important Formula :
 Dependence of refractive index :
(i) Nature of the media of incidence and refraction.
(ii) The wavelength of light.
(iii) Temperature of the media: Refractive index decreases with the
increase in temperature.
Example 13:
Example 14 :
3. Monochromatic light is refracted from air into glass of refractive index . The
ratio of the wavelength of incident and refracted waves is
(a) 1 :  (b) (c)  : 1 (d) 1 : 1

Normal
𝑾𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝝀𝒂 𝝁
= =
𝟏
𝑾𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒓𝒂𝒚 𝝀𝒈

i Air (𝝀𝒂 )

r Glass (𝝀𝒈 )
 Principle of reversibility of path of light
“If after undergoing a number of reflections and refractions, the direction of a ray of
light is reversed, the ray traces its original path in the reverse direction.”

Consider a ray of light passing from medium 1 into medium 2. Let i be the angle of
incidence in medium 1 and r be the angle of refraction in medium 2.

Then, if a plane mirror is held perpendicular to the ray

QR, the ray will trace the path back as RQP.
Now, r is the angle of incidence in medium 2 and i is
the angle of refraction in medium 1.
 Refraction through many mediums
Consider a number of mediums placed parallel to one another. If first and the last
medium is same, then angle of emergence will be equal to angle of incidence in the
first medium.
Consider a ray of light passing from medium 1
into medium 2. Let i be the angle of incidence in
medium 1 and 𝒓𝟏 be the angle of refraction in
medium 2.

Now, a ray of light passing from medium 2 into

medium 3. Let 𝒓𝟏 be the angle of incidence in
medium 2 and 𝒓𝟐 be the angle of refraction in
medium 3.

Now, a ray of light passing from medium 3 into

medium 1. Let 𝒓𝟐 be the angle of incidence in medium 3
and 𝒊 be the angle of refraction in medium 1.
 Refraction through a glass slab and lateral shift

Lateral shift: The refracting surfaces of a

glass slab are parallel to each other. When
a light ray passes through a glass slab it is
refracted twice at the two parallel faces
and finally emerges out parallel to its
incident direction i.e. the ray undergoes
no deviation  = 0. The angle of emergence
(e) is equal to the angle of incidence (i).

The lateral shift of the ray is the perpendicular distance between

the incident and the emergent ray, and it is given by

MN = [Link] (r).sin(i  r)
Real Depth and Apparent Depth :
Real Depth and Apparent Depth : Case (2) :
Object = in Rarer medium
Observer = in Denser medium

I OA = R = Real Depth
d AI = A = Apparent Depth
O A.D. OI = 𝐀𝐈 − 𝐎𝐀 = 𝐝 = 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟
𝐎𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭
R.D.
Rarer medium
𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑫𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒉 𝑨
Denser medium A 𝝁= =
𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒆𝒑𝒕𝒉 𝑹

∴ 𝐀= 𝛍𝐑

𝑺𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑶𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 = 𝒅 = 𝑨𝑰 − 𝑶𝑨

∴𝐝=𝐀−𝐑=𝛍𝐑−𝐑

∴ 𝒅 = 𝑹(𝝁 − 𝟏)
 Real and Apparent depth

If a beaker contains various immiscible liquids as shown, then

……
𝑹
∵𝑨=
𝝁

Object
 Example 15 : An air bubble in a glass slab with refractive index 1.5 (near normal
incidence) is 5 cm deep when viewed from one surface and 3 cm deep when
viewed from the opposite face. The thickness (in cm) of the slab is
[NEET 2016, Phase 2]
(a) 12 (b) 16 (c) 8 (d) 10
Let thickness of slab be 't' and
distance of air bubble from one side be 'x'.
When viewed from side (1) :
𝐑.𝐃.
5 cm 3 cm 𝝁=
𝐀.𝐃.
𝐈𝟏 O 𝐈𝟐

Side 2 When viewed from side (2) :

Side 1
x 𝐭−𝐱 𝝁=
𝐑.𝐃.
⟹
𝐀.𝐃.

t
Ex 16 : From the Fig. 1) Find apparent height of the bird. , 2) Find the apparent depth of the fish
3) At what distance will the bird appear to the fish ? , 4) At what distance will the fish appear to
the bird ?

Image

Object

36 m
Air (𝝁 = 𝟏)

Water (𝝁 = 𝟒/𝟑)
Image 36 m

Object
17. A fish rising vertically up towards the surface of water with speed 3 ms-1 observes a
bird diving vertically down towards it with speed 9 ms-1. The actual velocity of bird is
(a) 4.5 ms-1 (b) 5 ms-1
(c) 3 ms-1 (d) 3.4 ms-1
Image
9 ms-1

𝝁Y Object
V=?
Y
Air (𝝁 = 𝟏)

Water (𝝁 = 𝟒/𝟑)
Y’
3 ms-1
Example 18:

H
 19. How much water should be filled in a container 21 cm in height, so that it appears
half filled when viewed from the top of the container?

(a) 8 cm (b) 10.5 cm (c) 12 cm (d) 21 cm

To see the container half-filled from top,

water should be filled up to height x so
that bottom of the container should
appear to raised upto height (21−𝒙).
(21 − x)
Apparent depth = h’ = 𝟐𝟏 − 𝒙
Real depth = h = x
𝐑.𝐃. 𝒉
21 cm (21 − x) 𝝁= =
𝐀.𝐃. 𝒉′
x 𝟒 𝒙
Raised Bottom =
𝟑 𝟐𝟏−𝒙

∴ 𝒙 = 𝟏𝟐 𝒄𝒎
Bottom
 Critical angle 𝒊𝒄 :

“When ray of light travels from an optically denser medium into an optically rarer

medium, the angle of incidence in the denser medium for which the angle of refraction

in the rarer medium is 90 is called the critical angle for the given pair of media”.
Normal Light is travelling from denser medium
into rarer medium,

Rarer medium 𝝁𝑹 = 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝒊

𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝒓
r RR 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐢 = 𝐢𝐜 , 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐫 = 𝟗𝟎𝟎
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐜
𝒊𝒄 Denser medium 𝝁𝑫 ∴ =
𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟗𝟎 𝟎 = sin 𝒊𝒄
Important Formulae for Critical angle :
 TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION(T.I.R.)
N N N

𝐀′
𝐫𝟏 𝐫 = 𝟗𝟎𝟎
Rarer medium
B C D
A
𝐢𝐜
𝐢𝟏

Denser medium

O Source
“When a ray of light passing through a denser medium is incident on the surface of
a rarer medium at an angle greater than the critical angle, then the ray is totally
reflected in a denser medium. This phenomenon is called total internal reflection.”
 Conditions necessary for total internal reflection :

(a) The ray of light must travel from optically denser medium to
optically rarer medium.

(b) The angle of incidence in the denser medium must be greater than

the critical angle for the given pair of media.

 Field of vision of fish (or swimmer)
F.O.V. r

∟
C i>C

C
Water (𝝁)
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20. In the figure shown below, for an angle of incidence 45, at the top surface, what is
the minimum refractive index needed for total internal reflection at vertical face?
21. A ray of light travelling inside a rectangular glass block of refractive index is
incident on the glass-air surface at an angle of incidence of 45. The refractive
index of air is 1. Under these conditions the ray
(a) will emerge into the air without any deviation
(b) will be reflected back into the glass
(c) will be absorbed
(d) will emerge into the air with an angle of refraction equal to 90
Normal

air 𝒓 = 𝟗𝟎𝟎
Refracted Ray
Glass

𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒊 = 𝒊𝒄 , 𝒓 = 𝟗𝟎𝟎
22. A ray of light is incident at an angle 'i' from denser to rarer medium. The reflected and
the refracted rays are mutually perpendicular. The angle of reflection and the angle of
refraction are respectively r and r', then the critical angle will be [ AIPMT- 96 ]
23. A diver at a depth of 12 m in water sees the sky in a cone of semi-vertical angle

r
∟
∟

∟ C i>C

C
Water(𝝁)
Example 24 :

Normal

r
Example 25 :

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