Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 1 of 7

Reflection and Refraction

Equipment List

Qty Description Part #

1 Ray Optics Kit OS-8516A
1 Basic Optics Light Source OS-8470
Required but not included:
1 Protractor
1 Ruler

Introduction
The purpose of this activity is to experimentally confirm the Law of Reflection, for flat, concave,
and convex mirrors. The activities will also use the Law of Refraction (Snell’s Law) to determine
the index of refraction of a piece of plastic. The Basic Optics Light Source is used to produce a
single beam of light. The Ray Optics Kit includes all mirrors and plastic pieces that will be used.
Theory
The Law of Reflection
When a ray of light strikes a plane mirror,
the light ray reflects off the mirror and
changes its direction of travel. By
convention, the direction of a light ray is
expressed as the angle the light ray makes
with a line normal (perpendicular) to the
surface, as illustrated.

The angle of incidence is the angle between the normal and the incident ray; the angle of
reflection is the angle between the normal and the reflected ray. The law of reflection states that
the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection:
θi =θr [Eq. 1 The Law of Reflection]

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 2 of 7

Refraction and the Index of Refraction

Refraction is the bending of the path of light when it passes from
one material to another. The most common example of refraction
is the bending of light when it travels from water to air, which
causes submerged objects to appear displaced from their actual
positions.
Refraction is commonly explained in terms of the wave theory of
light and is based on the fact that light travels faster in some media
than in others. When a ray of light traveling through air strikes the
surface of a piece of glass at an angle, one side of the wave front
enters the glass before the other and it slows down, while the other
side continues to move at its original speed until it too reaches the
glass. As a result, the light ray bends inside the glass

The original ray is called the incident ray; the bent ray is called the refracted ray. Their directions
are specified with the angle to the normal, as illustrated.

The speed at which a given transparent medium transmits light waves is related to its optical
density (not to be confused with mass density ). Materials are classified by their index of
refraction. The index of refraction, n, of a transparent medium is the ratio of the speed of light in
a vacuum, c, to the speed of light in the medium:
c
n
v [Eq. 2 Definition of Index of Refraction]

In general, a ray is refracted toward the normal when it passes into a denser medium and away
from the normal when it passes into a less dense medium, as illustrated.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 3 of 7

The Law of Reflection (Snell’s Law)

The law of refraction relates the angle of incidence to the angle of refraction. The law is credited
to Willebrord Snell and states that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the
angle of refraction, r, is equal to the ratio of the speed of light in the original medium, vi, to the
speed of light in the refracting medium, vr. Snell's law is more commonly stated in terms of the
indexes of refraction of the incident and the refractive media, rather than the speeds of light in
the media:
ni sin θr
=
nr sin θi
or
ni sin θi =n r sin θr [Eq. 3 Snell’s Law of Refraction]

In this experiment, the two different media will be air and plastic. The index of refraction or air
is slightly greater than 1, which is the index of refraction of a vacuum, by definition. For all
calculations of this experiment, the index of refraction of air will be taken to be
n air ≈1 . Snell’s
Law for the air- plastic interfaces then becomes:

( 1 .0 ) sin θ air=n acrylic sin θ acrylic

The angles
θ air and θ acrylic will be measured and the values of sin θ air will be plotted against the

values of
sin θ acrylic . The plot should be linear, and the slope of the line must be the index of
refraction of the plastic:
sin θ air ¿ nacrylic sin θ acrylic
↓ ↓ ↓
y ¿ m x

Dispersion
Ordinary white light is a superposition of waves with wavelengths extending over the visible
spectrum (from red to violet). The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all colors of light,
but the speed in a material is different for different wavelengths. Therefore, the index of
refraction of a material depends on the wavelength (color) of the light that passes through the
material, and is a property of the incident light as well as a property of the material. If a beam of
light contains more than one color of light, each color will refract by a different amount and each
color will come out of the material traveling in a different direction. This is called dispersion: the
separation of a beam of light into its component colors by refraction. When ordinary white light
passes through a material, the dispersion is observed as a rainbow that comes out the other end.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 4 of 7

PROCEDURE A: Bouncing Light Off a Flat Mirror

 Note: For this and all other activities it may be necessary to darken the room to see the
light rays better.
1. Print a copy of the Lab Report page that has the "Flat Mirror Template" and place
it on the table. Put the flat edge of the three-way mirror against the illustration.
2. Place the Basic Optics Light Source flat on the paper. Rotate the knob to produce a single ray
of light. Shine the ray along the illustrated incident ray.
3. Use a ruler to trace the reflected ray. Make an arrow point on the ray to illustrate its direction
of travel.
4. Use the protractor to measure the angle of reflection, between the normal line and the
reflected ray.
5. Repeat for an incident ray of incident angle larger than 45°. Trace both the incident and the
reflected ray.
● Make sure you always shine the light to the same point on the mirror.
● Use different color pencils, if available, to distinguish the trials.
6. Repeat for an incident ray of incident angle less than 45°. Trace both the incident and the
reflected ray.
7. Summarize your measurement in the Data Table.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 5 of 7

PROCEDURE B: Bouncing Light off a Concave Mirror

1. Print a copy of the Lab Report page that has the "Concave Mirror Template" and place it on
the table. Put the concave side of the three-way mirror against the illustration.
2. Repeat the process of shining an incident ray and tracing the reflected ray for three different
angles of incidence.
● Make sure you always shine the light to the same point on the mirror.
3. Measure the incident and reflected rays and summarize your measurements in the Data
Table.

PROCEDURE C: Bouncing Light Off a Convex Mirror

1. Print a copy of the Lab Report page that has the "Convex Mirror Template" and place it on
the table. Put the convex side of the three-way mirror against the illustration.
2. Repeat the process of shining an incident ray and tracing the reflected ray for three different
angles of incidence.
 Make sure you always shine the light to the same point on the mirror.
3. Measure the incident and reflected rays and summarize your measurements in the Data
Table.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 6 of 7

PROCEDURE D: The Bending of Light by Refraction

1. Print a copy of the Lab Report page that has the
"Acrylic Rhomboid Template" and place it on the
table. Put the plastic rhomboid piece on top of the
illustration. Note: In this experiment, the plastic is
Acrylic.
2. Place the Basic Optics Light Source on the paper and
shine a single ray of light along the illustrated incident
ray.
3. Trace the ray that comes out at the other side
of the plastic.
4. Remove the plastic piece and connect the two rays to
show the path that light followed while inside the
plastic.
5. Make arrows on the rays to illustrate the direction of
travel.
6. Analyze the side labeled ‘Interface 1’: This is the first
bending of the light, as it traveled from air into the
plastic.
 Use the protractor to measure the angle of
refraction that the light ray makes with the
normal line at this interface. Record it in the
Data Table.
7. Analyze the side labeled ‘Interface 2’: This is the second bending of the light, as it traveled
from inside the plastic back out into the air.
 At the point where the light ray exited the plastic, use the protractor to trace the
normal line to the surface at that point. Extend the line to the inside of the plastic.
 Use the protractor to measure the angles of incidence and refraction with respect to
the normal line at this interface. Record them in the Data Table.
8. Repeat the process for an initial incident angle larger than 45° and then for an initial incident
angle smaller than 45°.
 It may help to print a new template for each trial. Use the available ‘Extra Rhomboid
Template’ for the repetitions.
 Use different color pencils, if available, to distinguish the trials if working all in the
same template.
9. Open the Capstone file Index of Refraction.ds.
10. Enter the values for the “angles in air” and the “angles in plastic” into the data table. Notice
that it does not matter whether the air or the plastic was the incident of the refractive side.
Just make sure you enter them in the correct table: ‘In AIR’ or ‘In PLASTIC’.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024

Reflection and Refraction EX-9987 Page 7 of 7

11. The program will calculate the sine of the angles and will automatically plot the
sin θair

versus
sin θacrylic . Click the ‘Fit’ button on the graph toolbar and select to do a ‘Linear fit’ of
the data.
12. The slope of the graph, m, will be shown in a box. Record the slope value as your calculated
value of the index of refraction of the plastic. Also, the program calculates the index of
refraction for each set of angles and takes the average of the indices of refraction.

PROCEDURE E: Observing Dispersion

Note: The room needs to be very dark for best results.
1. Print a copy of the Lab Report page that has the "Dispersion Setup Template" and place it on
the table. Put the plastic rhomboid piece on top of the illustration.
2. Place the Basic Optics Light Source on the paper and shine a single ray of light along the
illustrated incident ray.
3. Carefully mark the point at which the ray exits the rhomboid.
4. The ray that comes out of the rhomboid at the ‘Dispersion interface’ will show the dispersion
of colors from red to violet (you will probably see red-to-blue the best, since your eyes are
not very sensitive to violet).
 Carefully draw a ray that follows the path of the red light, from exiting point to the
edge of the page. Label it “Red.”
 Carefully draw a ray that follows the path of the blue light, from exiting point to the
edge of the page. Label this one “Blue.”
5. Remove the plastic piece and mark the path that the light followed inside the plastic.
6. Analyze the Dispersion Interface:
 At the exiting point, use a protractor to draw a line normal to the dispersion interface
and extend it to both sides of the interface.
 Measure the angle that the light traveling inside the plastic makes with the normal.
This will be the incident ray. Record the incident angle in the Data Table.
 Measure the angle that the refracted red light makes with the normal. Record the
angle in the Data Table.
 Measure the angle that the refracted blue light makes with the normal. Record the
angle in the Data Table.

7. Use Snell’s Law (Eq. 3) and air

n ≈1to calculate the index of refraction of the plastic for the
red light and for the blue light. Enter the results in the table.

Written by Cecilia A. Hernández 2024