Triple Physics Topic 3 - Refraction and Lenses

Refraction
When light hits an air-glass boundary, there are three things that happen to it:
Some light is reected;
Some light is absorbed;
Most of the light is transmitted.

If we shine a ray of light at an angle, we nd something a little strange. The ray does not carry
on in a straight line as you might expect. Instead it bends inwards. This is called refraction.

Note the following:

All angles are measured from the normal.
The angle of incidence is greater than the angle of refraction. The ray therefore bends
towards the normal.
When the ray emerges from the glass, it bends away from the normal. The angle of
refraction in this case is bigger than the angle of incidence.

Question 1

How does the path of the emergent ray

compare with the path of the undeviated
ray (the path the ray would have taken if
the block hadn't been there)?

Refraction occurs because the speed of light in air is greater than the speed of light in glass.
For a prism, the ray diagram is like this, using a ray of monochromatic (single colour) red
light.

Question 2

How does the path of the emergent ray

compare with the path of the undeviated
ray?

If we use a ray of white light, we see that the light ray gets split into the colours of the rainbow
(a spectrum).

This happens because red light is refracted less than blue light. The formation of the spectrum
is a result of dispersion of white light.
Refractive index
When light passes from air into glass, it slows down from 3 10 8 m/s to about 2 10 8 m/s.
The refractive index is the ratio of the speed of light in air to the speed of light in the glass,
which we can write as:
refractive index = speed of light in air speed of light in glass.
Refractive index has no units; it's just a number.
Question 3

What is the refractive index of the glass in

the example above?

If we increase the angle of incidence, we nd that the angle of refraction increases as well. But
it's not a simple relationship. For example, suppose the angle of incidence is 20 o and the
angle of refraction is 15 o. Double the angle of incidence to 40 o, and the angle of refraction is
NOT 30o, but 29o. The relationship is:
refractive index = sin i
sin r

The angle of incidence is 20 o and the

Question 4

angle of refraction is 15 o. What is the

refractive index of the material?

Make sure your calculator is set to degrees.

Lenses
Lenses are optical devices that bend light by refraction:
In a converging (convex) lens, the light rays come together.
In a diverging (concave) lens, the light rays spread apart.
Both types of lens have uses.
In the exam, the following notation for a lens will be used:

AQA syllabus

Converging Lens
The converging lens brings parallel rays of light onto a single point like this.

Note the following:

There are two principal foci (plural of focus). This is because the rays can come in either

side of the lens.

The focal length is the distance between the focus and the lens axis. This is given the
code F. So 2F means twice the focal length.
The nature of the image depends on where the object is:
Object at

Image at

Size

Orientation

Nature

Innity

Diminished

Inverted

Real

Diminished

Inverted

Real

Same size

Inverted

Real

Use
Image on a lm
(at innity)
Image on a lm
(close up)
Photocopier

>2F

Magnied

Inverted

Real

Projector

Innity
<F (on same
side)

Magnied

Inverted

Real

Magnied

Upright

Virtual

Spot light
Magnifying
glass

>2F
2F
Between 2F
and F
F
<F

Between F and
2F
2F

A real image can be projected onto a screen. A virtual image cannot be projected onto a
screen. Magnied means made bigger, while diminished means made smaller. Inverted
means turned upside down.
We can work out the magnication of the lens by the simple formula:
Know how to use this in the exam. This formula will be given:
magnication = image height
object height

Question 5

A converging lens magnies an object 12

mm high so that it is projected onto a
screen, and is 240 mm high. What is the
magnication? Where is the object most
likely to be? What is the nature of the
image?

Ray Diagrams in Converging Lenses

We can determine where an image lies in relation to the objects by using a ray diagram. We
can do this by using two simple rules:
Draw a ray from the top of the image parallel to the principal axis. This ray bends at the
lens axis and goes through the principal focus.
Draw a ray from the top of the lens through the centre of the lens.
Where the two rays meet, that is where the image is found. The diagrams shows how we do a
ray diagram step-by-step:
Step 1 Draw the ray parallel to the principal axis.

Step 2 Draw the refracted ray so that it passes through the principal focus.

Step 3 Draw a ray from the top of the object through the middle of the lens. This ray is
undeviated.

Step 4 Where the rays meet, that is where the image is.

It is a good idea to draw your ray diagrams on graph paper as the following ray diagram is. Be
careful with your drawing; a small change in the angle of the undeviated ray can lead to quite a
big change in the nal position of the image. And PLEASE... Be a good chap and use a sharp
pencil.

Question 6

Draw a ray diagram to show the position

of the image on a lm where the object
distance is three times the focal length of
the camera lens. What is the nature of
the image?

Diverging Lens
The diverging (concave) lens makes the rays split apart or diverge, as shown in the picture.

Note how the diverging rays are extended back, and come together at the principal focus. The
image of a diverging lens is virtual.
Images of Convex Lenses
A real image can be projected onto a screen.
We can work out the magnication of the lens by the simple formula:
magnication = height of image
height of object
The ray diagram shows the object at a distance bigger than 2F (twice the focal length)

This one is at 2F:

This one is between F and 2F:

This one is at F:

Question 7

Match the denitions used with lenses

Question 8

Have a go at the Crossword that gets you

to think about mirrors and lenses.

Summary
All angles are measured from the normal.

The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reection.

Image in a plane mirror is upright, laterally inverted and virtual
Refraction occurs at an interface, e.g. between air and glass.
Prisms refract light. White light is split up into a spectrum.
The image produced by a diverging lens is virtual.
Images produced by converging lenses are usually real and inverted.
A converging lens used as a magnifying glass produces an upright, magnied, and virtual
image.
Converging lenses are used in many optical devices.
Converging and diverging lenses are used to correct defects of vision.