VIDYASPARSH

Physics Notes
Refraction of Light

Physics By-
Abhishek Kushwaha
E-mail Id : [Link]@[Link] Contact No. 8808481400, 8318036447
 Refraction of Light
Refraction of Light: The change in direction of light
when it passes from one medium to another obliquely
is called refraction of light.
The angle between incident ray and normal
(at the point of incidence) is called the angle of incidence.
The angle between the refracted ray and the normal
(at the point of incidence) is called the angle of refraction.
Cause of Refraction: The refraction of light is due to the change in the speed of light on
going from one medium to another.
A medium in which the speed of light is more is known as optically rarer medium.
A medium, in which the speed of light is less, is known as optically denser medium.
It has been found that:
1. When a ray of light goes from a rarer medium to a denser medium, it bends towards
the normal.
2. When a ray of light goes from a denser medium to rarer medium, it bends away from
the normal.

Laws of Refraction of Light:

1. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal at the point of incidence, all lie in the
same plane.
2. The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle refraction is constant for a
given pair of media. This constant is called refractive index.
 The refractive index of a medium gives an indication of the light-bending of that
medium.
 The ratio of speed of light in vacuum to the speed of light in a medium is called the
refractive index of that medium.
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣
𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅𝑅 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 =
𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚

 By saying that the refractive index of glass is 1.5 we mean that the ratio of the speed of
light in air (or vacuum) to the speed of light in glass is equal to 1.5
 When light is going from one medium (other than vacuum or air) to another medium,
then the value of refractive index is called relative refractive index.
 When light is going from vacuum to another medium, then the value of refractive is
called the absolute refractive index.

Note: The refractive index depends on the nature of the material of the medium and
wavelength (or colour) of the light used.
Effects of Refraction of Light:
1. A pencil partly immersed in water appears
to be bent at the water surface.
2. An object placed under water appears to be raised.

Refraction of Light by Spherical Lenses :

A lens is a piece of transparent glass bound by two spherical surfaces.
(i) A concave lens is thick at the centre but thinner at the edges.
(ii) A concave lens is thin in the middle but thicker at the edges

Optical Centre and Principal Axis of a Lens:

The centre point of a lens is known as its optical centre.
The principal axis of a lens is a line passing through the optical centre of the lens and
perpendicular to both the faces of the lens.
Principle focus and focal length of convex lens:
The principal focus of a convex lens is point on its
principal axis to which light ray parallel to the
principal converges after passing through the lens.
A convex lens has real focus.

A convex lens is also known as a converging lens because it converges (brings to a point),
a parallel beam of light rays passing through it.
 The focal length of a lens is the distance between optical centre and principal focus
of the lens.
 Principal Focus and Focal Length of a Concave Lens:
The principal focus of a concave lens is a point on its
principal axis from which light rays, originally parallel
to the axis, appear to diverge after passing through
the concave lens.
A concave lens is also known as a diverging lens because it diverges a parallel beam of a
light rays. Concave lens has a virtual focus.
A lens has two foci: The two foci of a lens are at equal
distances from the optical centre, one on either side of the lens.

Rules for Obtaining Images Formed by Convex Lenses:

Rule 1 A ray of light which is parallel axis of a convex lens
passes through its focus after refraction through the lens.

Rule 2 A ray of light passing through the optical centre of

a convex lens goes straight after refraction through the
lens.

Rule 3 A ray of light passing through the focus of a convex

lens becomes parallel to its principal axis after refraction
through the lens.

Formation of Different Types of Images by a convex Lens:

Case 1. When the object is placed within the focus of a
convex lens, the image formed is:
(i) Behind the object (on the side of lens),
(ii) Virtual and erect, and
(iii) Larger than the object (enlarged or magnified)
 Case 2. When an object is placed at the focus of a
convex lens, the image formed is:
(i) At infinity,
(ii) real and inverted, and
(iii) Highly enlarged.

Case 3. When an object is placed between F’ and 2F’ in front of a convex lens, the image
formed is: (i) Beyond 2F (ii) Real and inverted (iii) Larger than the object (or magnified).

Case 4. When an object is placed at a distance 2f

in front of a convex lens, then the image formed is:
(i) At a distance 2f on the other side of the lens,
(ii) real and inverted, and
(iii) Of the same size as the object.

Case 5. When an object is placed beyond 2f in

front of a convex lens, then the image formed is:
(i) Between f and 2f on the other side of the lens,
(ii) real and inverted, and
(iii) Smaller then the object (or diminished).

Case 6: When an object is at infinity from a convex

lens, then the image formed is:
(i) At the focus,
(ii) Real and inverted, and
(iii) much smaller than the object
(or highly diminished)
Uses of Convex Lenses:
1. Convex lenses are used in spectacles to correct the defect of vision called
hypermetropia (or long-sightedness)
2. Convex lens is used for making a simple camera.
3. Convex lens is used as a magnifying glass (or magnifying lens) (by palmists,
Watchmakers, etc.)
4. Convex lenses are used in making microscopes, and telescopes and slide projectors (or
film projectors).

Sign Convention for Spherical Lenses

(i) All the distances are measured from the optical centre of the lens.
(ii) The distances measured in the same direction as that of incident light are taken as
positive.
(iii) The distances measured against the direction as that of incident light are taken as
negative.
(iv) The distance measured upward and Perpendicular to the Principal axis is taken as
positive.
(v) The distance measured downward and Perpendicular to the principal axis is taken as
negative.

Lens Formula : A formula which give the relationship between image distance (v), object
distance (u), and focal length (f) of a lens known as the lens formula.
The lens formula can be written as:
𝟏𝟏 𝟏𝟏 𝟏𝟏
− =
𝒗𝒗 𝒖𝒖 𝒇𝒇
Where 𝑣𝑣 = image distance, 𝑢𝑢 = object distance and 𝑓𝑓 = focal length
This lens formula applies to both types of spherical lenses: convex lenses as well as
concave.
Magnification Produced by Lenses:
The liner magnification is the ratio of the height of the image to the height of the object.
(ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖)
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 =
(ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜)
𝒉𝒉𝟐𝟐
𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝒎𝒎 =
𝒉𝒉𝟏𝟏
Where 𝑚𝑚 =magnification, ℎ2 = height of image, ℎ1 = height of object
 The liner magnification produced by a lens is equal to the ratio of image distance to the
object distance.
𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼𝐼 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀𝑀 =
𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑
𝒗𝒗
𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝒎𝒎 =
𝒖𝒖
Where, 𝑚𝑚 = magnification, 𝑣𝑣 = image distance and 𝑢𝑢 = object distance
Rules for Obtaining Image Formed by Concave Lenses:
Rule1. A ray of light which is parallel to the principal
axis of a concave lens appears to be coming from its
focus after refraction through the lens.
Rule2. A ray of light passing through the optical centre
of a concave lens goes straight after passing through
the lens.
Rule3. A ray of light going towards the focus of a
concave lens, become parallel to its principal axis
after refraction through the lens.
 No matter where the object is places in front of a concave lens, the concave lens
always forms a virtual, erect and diminished image of the object.

Case 1. When an object is placed anywhere

between optical centre (C) and infinity in front
of a concave lens, the image formed is:
(i) between optical is centre (C) and focus (F),
(ii) virtual and erect, and
(iii) diminished (smaller than the object)

Case 2. When an object is at infinity from a

concave lens, the image formed is:
(i) at focus (F),
(ii) virtual and erect, and
(iii) highly diminished
(much smaller than the object)
 Uses of Concave Lenses:
(i) Concave lenses are used in spectacles to correct the defect of vision called myopia
(or short-sightedness).
(ii) Concave lens is used as eye-lens in Galilean telescope.
(iii) Concave lenses are used in combination with convex lenses to make high quality
lens systems for optical instruments.
(iv) Concave lens is used in wide-angle spy hole in doors.

Power of lens: The power of a lens is a measure of the degree of convergence or

divergence of light rays falling on it.
The power of a lens is defined as the reciprocal of its focal length in metres.
1
𝑇𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑢𝑢𝑢, 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑎𝑎 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 =
𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓𝑓 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙ℎ𝑡𝑡 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑒 𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 (𝑖𝑖𝑖𝑖 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚)
𝟏𝟏
𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑷𝑷 =
𝒇𝒇
A lens of short focal length has more power whereas a lens of long focal length has less
power.
 The unit of the power of a lens is dioptre.
 One Dioptre is the power of a lens whose focal length is 1 metre. The power of a
convex lens is positive
 In order to calculate the power of a lens, we need its focal length in metres.