REFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH A TRIANGULAR GLASS PRISM

A prism is a homogeneous transparent refracting medium bounded by at least two non-parallel surfaces inclined at some angle. A ray of light undergoes refraction twice as it passes through a prism.

DISPERSION: It is the phenomena of splitting of white light into its constituent seven colours on passing through a glass prism.

Cause of Dispersion: Different colours move with same speed in air/vacuum. But their speeds in any other refracting medium like glass are different. As a result, different colours undergo different deviations on passing through the prism. Hence, different colours emerge from the prism along different directions. Spectrum: The band of seven colours obtained due to the dispersion of white light is called a spectrum. (VIBGYOR). Isaac Newton was the first to obtain the spectrum of sunlight using a glass prism.

If we join two prisms in the same way as they are shown in the figure, the new shape will work as a glass slab and we will see white light emerging out from the other side of the second prism.

Application of dispersion:

RAINBOW
It is a concentric coloured circular arc in the sky when the sun rays fall on rain drops during or after a shower. To watch a rainbow observer must stand with his back towards the sun.

The formation of rainbow is due to the dispersion of white light from the sun and the phenomenon of internal reflection of light from the water droplets suspended in the air after a shower. ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION: Atmospheric refraction is the bending of a ray of light as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density . As we go upwards, the atmosphere becomes rarified. So the Refractive Index decreases as we go upwards. So, the light from the sun or any other star undergoes refraction. Example: Twinkling of stars, early sun rise and delayed sun set. Twinkling of stars The starlight, on entering the earths atmosphere, undergoes refraction and bends towards the normal. The star appears slightly higher than its actual position when viewed near the horizon . This apparent position of the star is not stationary, but keeps on changing slightly, since the physical conditions of the earths atmosphere are not stationary. Since the stars are very distant, they appear like point-sized sources of light. As the path of rays of light coming from the star goes on varying slightly, the apparent position of the star fluctuates and the amount of starlight entering the eye flickers. The star sometimes appears brighter, and at some other time, fainter, which is the twinkling effect. Advance sunrise and delayed sunset The Sun is visible to us about 2 minutes before the actual sunrise, and about 2 minutes after the actual sunset because of atmospheric refraction. This is because the light from the sun undergoes atmospheric refraction and bends towards the normal making it visible at a position higher than its actual position. SCATTERING OF LIGHT: Tyndall effect: When sunlight emerges through a canopy of trees in a forest or through gaps in clouds, the beams of light become visible due to scattering. This phenomenon of scattering of light by colloidal particles (tiny water droplets, air molecules, suspended dust particles etc) in the atmosphere is called Tyndall effect.

Blue colour of Sky The earths atmosphere is a heterogeneous mixture of minute particles which include dust, tiny water droplets, smoke and molecules of air. The light is reflected diffusely by these particles and is scattered. The blue colour (shorter wave length) is scattered much more strongly than the red colour. Hence the sky appears blue. White colour of Clouds The clouds are at lower height. They are seen due to the scattering of light from the lower part of atmosphere which contains large number of dust particles and water droplets whose size is very large when compared to wave length of different colours in sun light. So all the wave lengths are scattered equally and hence it appears white. The sun looks reddish at the time of sun rise and sun set At the time of sun rise and sun set the sun is near the horizon. So the rays from the sun have to travel through a large part of atmosphere due to which most of the blue light is scattered away. Only the red colour which is least scattered enter our eye and hence the sun looks red. Danger signals are Red It is because wave length of red colour is large and the red light gets least scattered and can be seen from maximum distance. Sky appears dark to an Astronaut It is because at such huge heights there is nothing to scatter sun light. Therefore, the sky appears dark.

Some additional information ( not in syllabus) 1. Critical angle: The angle of incidence in the denser medium for which the angle of incidence in the rarer medium is 900.

2. Total internal reflection: When light travelling from a denser to a rarer medium is incident on the interface separating two media at an angle larger than a particular angle called critical angle, (which is a constant for a given pair of media) it will be totally reflected back into the denser medium . 3. Mirages. On hot summer days when the ground is very hot, inverted images of distant objects are observed as though they are reflected off the ground. This is called a mirage. It occurs due to total internal reflection of light due to atmospheric refraction. This happens when rays of light from a distant object passing from cooler and denser upper layers of the atmosphere to warmer and rarer layers close to the ground, undergo continuous refraction away from the normal and finally get totally internally reflected and then move upward bending towards the normal. An observer from a long distance, on looking towards the ground, sees an inverted image of the object as if it is being reflected from the ground 4. Looming. In very cold regions sometimes an erect virtual image of a distant object is seen above the object. (eg: a ship is seen hanging in mid air or object below the horizon become visible) This is called looming and it occurs when warm air lies over cooler (optically denser air) causing rays from the distant object to bend downward making the object appear higher than it is. Sometimes rays from the object moving upward from cooler to warmer air through the layers of decreasing refractive index may undergo total internal reflection and an inverted image may also be seen above the erect one. 5. The diagrams below show how the rainbow has the red colour on the top and the blue colour at the bottom. Each colour coming in the direction of the observers eye is coming from a different droplet which is in such a position that the direction of that colour emerging from the drop is towards the persons line of sight.

Red light emerges at a steeper angle. That is why red is on the top. Blue light from another drop emerging at a less steep angle will be seen at the bottom of the rainbow.