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Laws of Refraction:: I Law

1. Refraction occurs when light travels from one medium to another at an oblique angle, causing its path and speed to change. 2. Snell's law states that the ratio of sines of the angles of incidence and refraction is a constant called the refractive index, which depends on the medium. 3. Total internal reflection occurs when light travels from an optically denser to a rarer medium at an angle greater than the critical angle, causing the light to be completely reflected back into the denser medium.

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121 views

Laws of Refraction:: I Law

1. Refraction occurs when light travels from one medium to another at an oblique angle, causing its path and speed to change. 2. Snell's law states that the ratio of sines of the angles of incidence and refraction is a constant called the refractive index, which depends on the medium. 3. Total internal reflection occurs when light travels from an optically denser to a rarer medium at an angle greater than the critical angle, causing the light to be completely reflected back into the denser medium.

Uploaded by

hareesh
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 PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Refraction of Light:

Refraction is the phenomenon of change in the path of light as it travels


from one medium to another (when the ray of light is incident obliquely).
It can also be defined as the phenomenon of change in speed of light
from one medium to another.

Laws of Refraction: i Rarer


I Law: The incident ray, the normal to
the refracting surface at the point of N
incidence and the refracted ray all lie in r
Denser
the same plane. r
N μ
II Law: For a given pair of media and for
light of a given wavelength, the ratio of
the sine of the angle of incidence to the i Rarer
sine of the angle of refraction is a
constant. (Snell’s Law)
sin i (The constant μ is called refractive index of the medium,
μ=
sin r i is the angle of incidence and r is the angle of
refraction.)
TIPS:
1. μ of optically rarer medium is lower and that of a denser medium is higher.
2. μ of denser medium w.r.t. rarer medium is more than 1 and that of rarer
medium w.r.t. denser medium is less than 1. (μair = μvacuum = 1)
3. In refraction, the velocity and wavelength of light change.
4. In refraction, the frequency and phase of light do not change.
5. aμm = ca / cm and aμm = λa / λm

Principle of Reversibility of Light:


sin i sin r i Rarer
aμb = bμa =
sin r sin i (a)

aμb x bμa = 1 or a μb = 1 / bμa Denser


r (b)
If a ray of light, after suffering any number of
reflections and/or refractions has its path N
reversed at any stage, it travels back to the μ
source along the same path in the opposite
direction.
A natural consequence of the principle of reversibility is that the image and object
positions can be interchanged. These positions are called conjugate positions.
Total Internal Reflection:
Total Internal Reflection (TIR) is the phenomenon of complete reflection of
light back into the same medium for angles of incidence greater than the
critical angle of that medium.
N N N N

Rarer μa
r = 90° (air)

ic i > ic i

Denser μg
O (glass)

Conditions for TIR:


1. The incident ray must be in optically denser medium.
2. The angle of incidence in the denser medium must be greater than the
critical angle for the pair of media in contact.
Relation between Critical Angle and Refractive Index:
Critical angle is the angle of incidence in the denser medium for which the
angle of refraction in the rarer medium is 90°.
sin i sin ic
μa =
g
= = sin ic
sin r sin 90°

1 1 1 λg
or aμg = μg = or sin ic = Also sin ic =
gμa
a
sin ic aμg
λa

Red colour has maximum value of critical angle and Violet colour has
minimum value of critical angle since,

1 1 Applications of T I R:
sin ic = =
a μg a + (b/ λ2) 1. Mirage formation
2. Looming
3. Totally reflecting Prisms
4. Optical Fibres
5. Sparkling of Diamonds

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