SRI RAMKUWAR DEVI FORMA

VIVEKANANDA VIDYALAYA
PHYSICS
INVESTIGATORY
PROJECT

DONE BY:-

VISHRUTHA M - 12204 XII-B

 CONTENTS
 AIM

 APPARATUS REQUIRED

 THEORY

 PROCEDURE

 OBSERVATIONS

 CALCULATIONS

 RESULT

 PRECAUTIONS

 SOURCES OF ERROR

 BIBILOGRAPHY
 TOPIC

“TO INVESTIGATE THE DEPENDENCE OF

THE ANGLE OF DEVIATION ON THE
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE, USING A
HOLLOW PRISM FILLED ONE BY ONE,
WITH DIFFERENT TRANSPARENT
FLUIDS.”

APPARATUS REQUIRED
 DRAWING BOARD AND WHITE SHEET OF PAPER
 HOLLOW PRISM
 DIFFERENT LIQUIDS (WATER, OIL, MILK, VINEGAR)
 DRAWING PINS, PENCIL, THUMB PINS
 GRAPH PAPER
 HALF METER SCALE
 A PROTRACTOR

INTRODUCTION
 AN OPTICAL PRISM IS A TRANSPARNT OPTICAL ELEMENT WITH
FLAT, POLISHED SURFACS THAT ARE DESIGNED TO REFRACT LIGHT.
AT LEAST ONE SURFACE MUST BE ANGLES – ELEMENTS WITH TWO
PARALLEL SURFACES ARE NOT PRISMS. THE MOST FAMILIAR TYPE
OF OPTICAL PRISM IS THE TRIANGULAR PRISM, WHICH HAS A
TRIANGULAR BASE AND RECTANGULAR SIDES. NOT ALL OPTICAL
PRISMS ARE GEOMETRIC PRISMS, AND NOT ALL GEOMETRICAL
PRISMS WOULD COUNT AS AN OPTICAL PRISM. PRISMS CAN BE
MADE FROM ANY MATERIAL THAT IS TRANSPARENT TO THE
WAVELENTHS FOR WHICH THEY ARE DESIGNED. TYPICAL MATERIALS
INCLUDE GLASS, ACRYLIC AND FLUORITE.

A PRISM CAN BE USED TO BREAK LIGHT UP INTO ITS CONSTITUENT

SPECTRAL COLOURS (THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW). PRISMS CAN
BE USED TO REFLECT LIGHT, OR TO SPLIT LIGHT INTO COMPONENTS
WITH DIFFERENT POLARIZATIONS. AN OPTICAL PRISM IS A BLOC OF
OPTICAL MATERIAL CUT IN GEOMETRICAL SHAPE FOR THE SPECIFIC
PURPOSE OF MODIFYING THE INCIDENT LIGHT BEAM BY AFFECTING
ITS DIRECTION, ROTATIONAL ANGLE OR DIFFRACTION. IN OPTICAL
SYSTEMS THEY ARE USED TO TURN A SIGNAL OR SEPARATE THE
SIGNAL ACCORDING TO ITS WAVELENGTH.

THEORY
 LIGHT CHANGES SPEED AS IT MOVES FROM ONE MEDIUM TO
ANOTHER (FOR EXAMPLE, FROM AIR INTO THE GLASS OF THE
PRISM). THIS SPEED CHANGE CAUSES THE LIGHT TO BE REFRACTED
AND TO ENTER THE NEW MEDIUM AT A DIFFERENT ANGLE
(HUYGENS PRINCIPLE). THE DEGREE OF BENDING OF THE LIGHT’S
PATH DEPENDS ON THE ANGLE THAT THE INCIDENT BEAM OF LIGHT
MAKES WITH THE SURFACE, AND ON THE RATIO BETWEEN THE
REFRACTIVE INDICES OF THE TWO MEDIA (SNELL’S LAW). THE
REFRACTIVE INDEX OF MANY MATERIALS (SUCH AS GLASS) VARIES
WITH THE WAVELENGTH OR COLOUR OF THE LIGHT USED, A
PHENOMENON KNOWN AS DISPERSION. THIS CAUSES LIGHT OF
DIFFERENT COLOURS TO BE REFRACTED DIFFERENTLY AND TO LEAVE
THE PRISM AT DIFFERENT ANGLES, CREATING AN EFFECT SIMILAR TO
A RAINBOW. THIS CAN BE USED TO SEPARATE A BEAM OF WHITE
LIGHT INTO ITS CONSTITUENT SPECTRUM OF COLOURS. PRISMS
WILL GENERALLY DISPERSE LIGHT OVER A MUCH LARGER
FREQUENCY BANDWIDTH THAN DIFFRACTION GRATINGS, MAKING
THEM USEFUL FOR BROAD- SPECTRUM SPECTROSCOPY.
FURTHERMORE, PRISMS DO NOT SUFFER FROM COMPLICATIONS
ARISING FROM OVERLAPPING SPECTRAL ORDERS, WHICH ALL
GRATINGS HAVE. PRISMS ARE SOMETIMES USED FOR THE INTERNAL
REFLECTION AT THE SURFACES RATHER THAN FOR DISPERSISON. IF
LIGHT INSIDE THE PRISM HITS ONE OF THE SURFACES AT A
SUFFICIENTLY STEEP ANGLE, TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION OCCURS
AND ALL OF THE LIGHT IS REFLECTED. THIS MAKES A PRISM A
USEFUL SUBSTITUTE FOR A MIRROR IN SOME SITUATIONS.
REFRACTION: The phenomenon of bending of light from its
straight line path on the surface of separation of two optical media
is known as refraction of lights.

REFRACTIVE INDEX: It is defined as the ratio of velocity of light in

vacuum of that in any medium.

FORMULA:

Refractive index (n) = speed of light (c)/phase velocity of light (v)

ANGLE OF INCIDENCE: The angle between the incident ray on a

surface and the line perpendicular to the surface at the point of
incidence is called angle of incidence.

ANGLE OF DEVIATION: The angle between the incident ray on the

surface and a refracted beam that originates from a medium or
channel after refraction (emergent ray) is called angle of deviation.

MINIMUM ANGLE OF DEVIATION: The smallest angle that an

optical element or system can bend light through. The angle of
deviation in a prism is the smallest when the incident and departing
rays create identical angles with the prism faces. The angle is
significant in terms of prism spectroscopes since it is easily
computed.

DISPERSION: When white light is passed through a glass prism, it

splits into its spectrum of colours (in order violet, indigo, blue,
green, yellow, orange and red) and this process of white light
splitting into its constituent colours is termed as dispersion.

EXPERIMENT
AIM:

To investigate the dependence of the Angle of Deviation

on the Angle of Incidence using a Hollow Prism filled one by
one, with different transparent fluids.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

 Drawing sheet and Board

 Board pins
 A Hollow Glass Prism
 Different transparent liquid

PROCEDURE:

1. The sheet of paper was fixed on the drawing board with

drawing pins.
2. The prism filled with liquids was placed on the paper and its
boundary ABC was traced.
3. A point O was marked on one of the refracting surface and a
normal was drawn to the surface at that point.
4. A straight line PQ was drawn corresponding to the incident ray
drawn at a suitable angle with the normal.
5. Two points P and Q was fixed about 5 cm apart on the incident
ray and its image was viewed with one eye closed from that
side AC of the prism. Two pins R and S was fixed such that the
 tips of these pins and the tips of image of the incident ray pin P.
Q lied in the same straight line.
6. The pinpricks on the paper were encircled.
7. The pins P and Q were removed and also encircle their
pinpricks.
8. Points S and R was joined and produced backward to meet the
incident ray PQ produced. Thus RS is the emergent ray
corresponding to the incident ray PQ. Arrowheads were drawn
to show the direction of the rays. The angle of deviation and
prism were measured with the help of protractor.
9. The above steps were repeated for different angles of
incidence.
10. The experiment with different liquids were repeated.

CALULATIONS:

WORKING FORMULA = μ = sin (A + Dm) / 2

Sin (A/2)

Where

A = Angle of Prism

Dm = Minimum angle of deviation

µ = Refractive index of medium

OBSERVATIONS:
1. MATERIAL : COCONUT OIL
Serial no. Angle of Angle of
Incidence Deviation

01

02

03

04

05

EXPERIMENTAL REFRACTIVE INDEX =

CALCULATED REFRACTIVE INDEX =

2. MATERIAL : WATER (H2O)

Serial no. Angle of Angle of
Incidence Deviation

01

02

03

04

05

EXPERIMENTAL REFRACTIVE INDEX =

CALCULATED REFRACTIVE INDEX =

3. MATERIAL : VINEGAR
Serial no. Angle of Angle of
Incidence Deviation

01

02

03

04

05

EXPERIMENTAL REFRACTIVE INDEX =

CALCULATED REFRACTIVE INDEX =

 RESULTS

THE ANGLE OF DEVIATION FIRST

DECREASES WITH INCREASE IN ANGLE
OF INCIDENCE , ATTAINS A MINIMUM
VALUE AND THEN INCREASES WITH
FURTHER INCREASE IN ANGLE OF
INCIDENCE.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WWW.STUDYLIB.COM
WWW.SCRIBD.COM
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM
WWW.VEDANTU.COM
WWW.EDUCART.COM

PRECAUTIONS
1. The boundary of the prism, incident
ray and emergent ray should be drawn
with a sharp pencil.
2. The angle of incidence during various
observations should be lie between 30°
& 60°.
3. The distance between the pins should
be atleast 10cm. The pins should be
vertical.
4. While fixing the pins, their feet should
be brought in one line.
5. During fixing the pins the prism gets
disturbed by chance, it should be
brought back to its marked boundary
6. The angle of deviation should be
measured with protractor carefully & so
accurately as possible.

SOURCES OF ERROR
1. The distance between the
pins may be small.
2. The pins may not have
been fixed vertically
3. The angle of deviation may
not have been measured
correctly.
4. The curve joining the
various points of the graph
may not be smooth free
hand curve
THANK
YOU