Introduction
When light travels from one medium to
another, it generally bends, this bending is
called refraction. This bending occurs because
light travels at different speeds in different
mediums. When light moves from a rarer
medium to a denser one (air to glass) it bends
towards the normal. Conversely, when light
moves from denser medium to rarer one
(glass to air) it bends away from the normal.
This change in direction is essential for many
optical phenomenon and devices.
Laws of refraction
*The incident ray, the refracted ray and the
normal to the interface of two transparent
medium at the point of incidence all lie in the
same plane.
*The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the
sine of angle of refraction is a constant, for
the light of a given colour and for the given
pair of media. This law is also known as Snell’s
law of refraction. If [i] is the angle of
incidence and [r] is the angle of refraction,
then:
Sin i /Sin r = constant
Theory
Normal ray: A ray of light which forms an
angle of 90 degree when the refracting
surface is said to be normal. When a ray of
light travels along the normal, it does not
suffer any refraction.
Incident ray: A ray of light that travels
towards the refracting surface is called
incident ray.
Refracted ray: A ray of light that changes
its path when passing through a refracting
surface is said to be a refracted ray.
Emergent ray: A ray of light which
emerges out into the original medium
after refraction is said to be an emergent
ray.
Lateral Displacement: - The perpendicular
shift in the shift of light, seen when it
emerges out from the refracting medium.
Angle of Incidence: - The angle formed
between the normal and incident ray.
Angle of Refraction: - The angle formed
between the normal and the refracted ray.
Angle of emergence: - The angle formed
between the normal and emergent ray.
Procedure
Take a soft drawing board fix a white sheet
on it with the help of thumb pins.
Place the rectangular glass slab in the centre
of the white paper and draw its outline
boundary with pencil.
Mark this rectangular figure obtained as
ABCD.
On one side of this figure that is, AB take one
point E, draw a ray EF and label it as incident
ray.
Now place the thumb pins and mark them as
P and Q.
See through the glass slab from side CD and
fix pin R and S such that when seen through
the glass slab all the points lie in straight line,
(i.e., pins P,Q,R and S should lie in straight
line when seen through the glass slab).
Remove the glass slab.
Join Point points R and S such that it meets
CD at point G.
Draw a normal MN at the point of incidence
at F and another normal XY at the point of
refraction at G.
Join points F and G with the pencil which is
the refracted ray.
Now extend the incident ray EF to point L
such that the extended ray will be parallel to
the emergent ray.
Now draw a perpendicular between the
extended incident ray and the emergent ray
known as lateral displacement.
Outcome
So we can observe that the angle of incidence
is equal to angle of emergence. The angle of
refraction is less than angle of incidence
because light is travelling from rarer to denser
optical medium. The lateral displacement
remains the same for different angles of
incidences and we can see that the light ray
travels from optically rarer medium (air) to
optically denser medium (glass)light bends
towards the normal.
Materials Required
A soft drawing board.
Thumb pins.
Rectangular glass slab.
White paper.
Pencil
Scale
Conclusion
From this activity it is clear that when a ray of
light travels from denser medium to rarer
medium it bends away from the normal.
When a ray of light travels from rarer medium
to denser medium it bends towards the
normal.