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Behavior-of-light

The document discusses the behavior of light, covering concepts such as reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, and polarization. It explains the laws of reflection, Snell's law for refraction, and conditions for total internal reflection, along with related formulas. Additionally, it introduces Malus's Law for analyzing polarized light and its intensity based on the orientation of polarizing filters.

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4 views

Behavior-of-light

The document discusses the behavior of light, covering concepts such as reflection, refraction, total internal reflection, and polarization. It explains the laws of reflection, Snell's law for refraction, and conditions for total internal reflection, along with related formulas. Additionally, it introduces Malus's Law for analyzing polarized light and its intensity based on the orientation of polarizing filters.

Uploaded by

cassiopeia.july
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Behavior of light

1. Reflection. When a ray of light approaches a smooth polished surface and the light
ray bounces back, it is called the reflection of light.
 Normal: A perpendicular drawn to the reflecting surface at
point P (known as the point of incidence) is called the
normal to the reflecting surface.
 Incident Ray: A ray of light that falls on the reflecting
surface from a light source or an object is called the
incident ray.
 Reflected Ray: A ray of light that arises from the reflecting
surface after reflection from it is called a reflected ray.
 Angle of Incidence: The angle between the incident ray

surface. It is denoted by ∠i or θi
and normal to the point of incidence on the reflecting

denoted by ∠r or θr
 Angle of Reflection: The angle between the reflected ray and the normal line. It is

 Principal axis: It is defined as a line that divides the two mediums or the reflecting
surface is called the principal axis.

Laws of Reflection
The incident ray, the normal and the reflected ray must lie in the same plane.
The angle of incidence (i) = The angle of reflection (r).

2. Refraction in simple terms is the bending of light when it passes from one transparent
substance to another.

Key Features of Refraction


Index of Refraction talks about how
the speed of light in a medium is
divided by the speed of light in a
vacuum.
The formula is n=c/v
where ‘n’ denotes as the index of
refraction, ‘c’ as the velocity of light in
vacuum and ‘v’ velocity of light in the
medium.

Snell’s law is defined as “The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of
the angle of refraction is a constant, for the light of a given color and for the given
pair of media”. Snell’s law formula is expressed as:
Sinθi / Sinθr = Constant
n1Sinθ1= n1Sinθ2
Where n1 and n2 are the indices of refraction of the media, θ1 angle of incidence, and
θ2 angle of refraction

Types of Refraction
Refraction from rarer to the denser medium: In this case, the relative
refractive index is greater than 1 as well as the angle of incidence is greater
than the angle of refraction. Thus, the refracted ray tends to
shift towards the normal.

Refraction from denser to the rarer medium: In this case, the


relative refractive index is less than 1 and the angle of incidence
is less than the angle of refraction, that is, the refracted ray is
shifts away from the normal.

Sample questions:
Question 1: If a ray is refracted at an angle of 14° and the refractive index is 1.2,
compute the angle of incidence.
Question 2: Light travelling in air enters into an optical fiber of refractive index 1.44.
a) In which direction does the light bend?
b) If the angle of incidence on one end of the fiber is 22o, then what is the angle of
refraction?

Try this!!! (1/2 crosswise)


1: If the angle of incidence is 25° and angle of refraction is 32°, find the refractive
index of the media
2. The light travelling through the optical fiber reaches the end of the optical fiber and
exits into the air. If the angle of incidence at the end of the tube is 30o. Then what
would the angle of refraction outside the fiber be?

3. Total internal reflection is defined as:


The phenomenon which occurs when the light rays
travel from a more optically denser medium to a less
optically denser medium.

Conditions for Total Internal Reflection


The light ray moves from a more
dense medium to a less dense
medium.
The angle of incidence must be
greater than the critical angle

4. Polarization (Malus Law)


Polarized light waves are light waves in which the vibrations occur in a single plane.

Intensity of Analysed Light


The first filter that the unpolarised light goes through is the polariser
A second polarising filter placed after the first one is known as an analyser
If the analyser has the same orientation as the polariser, the light transmitted by the
analyser has the same intensity as the light incident on it
If they have a different orientation, we must use Malus's Law to determine the
intensity of the transmitted light

Malus's Law states that if the analyzer is rotated by an angle θ with respect to the
polarizer, the intensity of the light transmitted by the analyzer is:

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