APPLIED PHYSICS-II:Module-2

Vasudevan M V
April 5, 2025

PART-A
Answer the following questions in one word or sentence. Each question carries 1 mark.

1. Out of the given materials, which is the optically transparent medium? ( wood, wax paper, stained
glass, water)
water
2. The angle of incidence is always ..... the angle of reflection. ( equal to, greater than, less than)
equal to
3. The twinkling of stars is due to......
Refraction on atmosphere of star
4. The twinkling of stars is due to......
Diopter or m−1
5. Sun is visible before sunrise and after sunset because of....?
Refraction
6. Name the principle behind the phenomenon of mirage?
Total internal reflection or TIR
7. Two types of optical fibres are
step-index and graded-index fibres

PART-B
Each question carries 3 marks.

1. What is the refraction of light? State the laws of refraction.

• Bending of light when it goes from one medium to other.

• Laws of refraction are:
1. Incident ray refracted ray and normal to the interface lie on same plane
2. Snells’s law. See image-1
sin i n2
= (1)
sin r n1

1
 Figure 1: Snell’s law

2. An object is placed at a distance of 10 cm from a convex lens of focal length 12 cm. Find the position
of the image.

object distance, u = −10 cm (2)

focal length, f = +12 cm (3)
image position, v =? (4)
1 1 1 1 1 1
− = ⇒ = + (5)
v u f v u f
1 1 1 1 1
= + = − (6)
v −10 12 12 10
1 10 − 12 −2 1
= = =− (7)
v 120 120 60
image position, v = −60 cm (8)

3. Define total internal reflection. What are the conditions of total internal reflection?

• Reflection of light from the interface of two media, when

1. Light travels from denser to rarer medium
2. Angle of incidence is greater than critical angle

4. Explain the working of optical fibres

• Optical fibre has inner denser region core and outer rarer cladding.
• Light falls on core-cladding interface at an angle greater than critical angle.
• Due to multiple total internal reflections the light travels through the fibre.

5. What is spherical aberration? How it can be eliminated?

• Inability of convex lens to focus marginal and paraxial light rays to same point and the image gets
blurred.
• This can be solved using stops or crossed lenses.

6. What is chromatic aberration?

Page 2
 • Inability of lens to focus all colours of white light to same paoint
• Can be solved using achromats

7. What are total internal reflection prisms.

• A prism having angle 90◦ -45◦ -45◦ is called a total reflecting prism. See figuer-2.
• When light is incident at greater than critical angle, it undergoes TIR, thus turning around light

Figure 2: TIR prism

8. A convex lens and concave lens of the same focal length are combined
1. What is the effective focal length?
2. What is effective power?

• Concave has focal length −f and convex +f

• Total power of the combination will be
1 1 1 1 1
= + = − =0 (9)
ftotal fconvex fconcave f f
1
ftotal = = ∞ (10)
0

PART-C
Each question carries seven marks

1. With the help of a diagram explain the working of a simple microscope.

• Uses a convex lens to magnify small objects

• Object placed very close to the lens (between F and O)
• Gives erect, virtual magnified image.

Page 3
 Figure 3: Simple microscope

D
• Magnification is given by m = 1 + , where F is the focal length and D the least distance of
f
vision of human eye, D = 25 cm

2. A convex lens of focal length 20 cm is placed in contact with a concave lens of focal length 15 cm. Find
out the effective focal length and power of the combination?

Focal length of convex lens, f1 = +20 cm (11)

Focal length of concave lens, f2 = −15 cm (12)
1 1 1
Total power of combination, = + (13)
ftot f1 f2
1 1 1 1 1
= + = − (14)
ftot 20 −15 20 15
1 15 − 20 5 1
=− =− =− cm−1 (15)
ftot 15 × 20 300 60
Total focal length, ftot = −60 cm−1 (16)

3. Explain the working of astronomical telescope. Discuss the resolving power of astronomical telescope.

• Astronomical telescope consists two lenses:See figure-4

1. Objective: Large lens (i.e large aperture for collecting more light) forms, real inverted image
of distant object.
2. Eyepiece: Magnifies and shows the final image

Figure 4: Astronomical telescope

Page 4
 • Light from a distant object enters the objective and a real, inverted and diminished image A′ B ′ is
formed at focal point of the objective
• Eye-piece is adjusted so A′ B ′ is focal point of eye-piece, which produces the final image
fo
Magnification, m = (17)
fe
Where fo and fe are objective and eye-piece focal lengths.
• Resolving power of telescope is
a
R.P = (18)
1.22λ
a is the diameter of objective lens and λ is the wavelength of light used.

4. A converging lens forms a real image. If the image is twice the size of the object and 72 cm from the
lens, calculate the focal length and power of the lens.

Magnification, m = −2 (19)
Image distance, v = +72 cm (20)
v v
m = ⇒ Object distance, u = (21)
u m
72
u= = −36 cm (22)
−2
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
− = = − = + (23)
v u f 72 −36 72 36
1 1
= cm−1 (24)
f 24
Focal length, f = 24 cm = 0.24m (25)
1
power, P = = 4.17 D (26)
0.24

5. Outline the structure of an optical fiber. List any three applications of optical fibers.

• Optical fibre has three main portions (See image-5).

1. Core: Denser Inner region of high refractive index
2. Cladding: Rarer outer region of low refractive index
3. Coating: Outer covering.
• Main applications of optical fibres are:
1. Medical applications: to examine interior part of body (Endoscopy).
2. Decoration purpose
3. Telecommunication: Transmit signals.

6. Write any four applications of optical fibres. What are the advantages of using optical fibres in the
telecommunication field?

• Applications of optical fibre are

Page 5
 Figure 5: Structure of optical fibre.

1. Medical applications: to examine interior part of body (Endoscopy).

2. Decoration purpose
3. Telecommunication: Transmit signals.
4. Can be used in toxic environments
• Advantages of fibres in telecommunication field:
1. Lower signal attenuation level
2. More data transmission capacity
3. Light weight than electric cables

7. What is total internal reflection. Give the expression for critical angle. Explain two applications of TIR.

• TIR is Reflection of light when it goes from denser to rarer medium, if angle of incidence
is larger than critical angle
ndenser 1
= (27)
nrarer sin icritical

• Brilliance of diamond: Diamond has very low critical angle and light entering in to one face
undergo multiple reflections before coming out. This causes glittering of diamond.
• Mirage: It is an optical illusion seen in deserts on hot days where inverted image of trees are found
on ground. Layer of air in contact with ground is hotter and rarer, comparing to higher layers.
Thus light undergo TIR from this interface. See figure-6

Figure 6: Mirage of tree in desert

Page 6
8. Sketch the image formation of a convex lens when
(a) Object is placed at 2F
(b) Object is between 2F and F from the lens.
Also give the nature of images.

(a) When object is at 2F the real, inverted, same size image at 2F on other side. See image-7
(b) Object is between 2F and F the real, inverted, magnified image after 2F on other side.

9. Sketch the ray diagram for the image formation by a convex lens, when the object is placed (i) beyond
2F (ii) between F and 2F . Discuss the nature of the images.

Page 7
Figure 7: Convex lens image properties

Page 8