Index of Refraction & Snell’s Law Questions

1. Calculate the speed of light for the following mediums:

a. Water (n=1.33);
b. Diamond (n=2.42)
c. Plexiglas (n=1.51)

2. Calculate the refractive index for a substance if the speed of light in that medium is
a. 2.10 x 108 m/s
b. 1.50 x 108 m/s

3. Calculate the speed of light in a hypothetical material you have discovered and
named in honour of yourself. Its refractive index is 1.10.

4. Calculate the angle of refraction for light as it passes from air to each of the
mediums;
a. Water (n=1.33);
b. Diamond (n=2.42)
c. Plexiglas (n=1.51)

At an incidence angle of 25.0°.

5. An angle of incidence of 20.0° in water results in an angle of refraction of 15°.

a. Is the second medium more of less optically dense than the first medium?
b. Find the n of the second medium
c. Find the speed of light in each medium
d. Repeat this question for an angle of refraction of 25.0°

6. Light travels 875 km in material “x” in 5.00 ms. Calculate the speed of light in the material
and the material’s index of refraction.
Parts of the eye
Iris - Controls the size of the pupil. The part of the eye that is colored.
Pupil - Opening to the inner eye.
Cornea - Outermost transparent layer of the eye, begins the focusing process.
Lens - Focuses image of objects.
Retina - Contains cells that detect light.
Optic nerve - Transmits information to the brain.
Ciliary muscle - Controls the shape of the lens.
Rods - Allows the eye to sense black, white, and gray light.
Cones - Allows the eye to sense color. There are three types, one for each of the primary
subtractive colors (red, green, and blue).
1. The best definition of refraction is ____.
a. passing through a boundary b. bouncing off a boundary
c. changing speed at a boundary d. changing direction when crossing a boundary
2. If carbon tetrachloride has an index of refraction of 1.461, what is the speed of light
through this liquid? (c = 3 x 108 m/s)
a. 4.38 x 108 m/s b. 2.05 x 108 m/s c. 4.461 x 108 m/s d. 1.461 x 108 m/s
3. A ray of light in air is incident on an air-to-glass boundary at an angle of 30 degrees
with the normal. If the index of refraction of the glass is 1.65, what is the angle of the
refracted ray within the glass with respect to the normal?

a. 56 degrees b. 46 degrees c. 30 degrees d. 18 degrees

4. If the critical angle for internal reflection inside a certain transparent material is
found to be 48 degrees, what is the index of refraction of the material? (Air is outside
the material).
a. 1.35 b. 1.48 c. 1.49 d. 0.743
5. Carbon disulfide (n = 1.63) is poured into a container made of crown glass (n =
1.52). What is the critical angle for internal reflection of a ray in the liquid when it is
incident on the liquid-to-glass surface?
a. 89.0 degrees b. 68.8 degrees c. 21.2 degrees d. 4.0 degrees
6. Carbon tetrachloride (n = 1.46) is poured into a container made of crown glass (n =
1.52). If the light ray in glass incident on the glass-to-liquid boundary makes an angle
of 30 degrees with the normal, what is the angle of the corresponding refracted ray
with respect to the normal?
a. 55.5 degrees b. 29.4 degrees c. 31.4 degrees d. 19.2 degrees
7. A light ray in air is incident on an air to glass boundary at an angle of 45.0 degrees
and is refracted in the glass of 30.0 degrees with the normal. What is the index of
refraction of the glass?
a. 2.13 b. 1.74 c. 1.23 d. 1.41
9. A light ray in air enters and passes through a block of glass. What can be stated with
regard to its speed after it emerges from the block?
a. speed is less than when in glass b. speed is less than before it entered glass
c. speed is same as that in glass d. speed is same as that before it entered glass
10. Which of the following describes what will happen to a light ray incident on an air-
to-glass boundary?
a. total reflection b. total transmission
c. partial reflection, partial transmission d. partial reflection, total transmission
11. Which of the following describes what will happen to a light ray incident on an air-
to-glass boundary at an angle of incidence less than the critical angle?
a. total reflection b. total transmission
c. partial reflection, partial transmission d. partial reflection, total transmission
12. Which of the following describes what will happen to a light ray incident on an glass-to-air
boundary at an angle of incidence greater than the critical angle?
a. total reflection b. total transmission
c. partial reflection, partial transmission d. partial reflection, total transmission
13. What is the angle of incidence on an air-to-glass boundary if the angle of refraction
in the glass (n = 1.52) is 25 degrees?
a. 16 degrees b. 25 degrees c. 40. degrees d. 43 degrees
14. A ray of white light, incident upon a glass prism, is dispersed into its various color
components. Which one of the following colors experiences the greatest amount of
refraction?
a. orange b. violet c. red d. green
15. When light from air hits a smooth piece of glass (n = 1.5) with the ray
perpendicular to the glass surface, which of the following will occur?
a. reflection and transmission at an angle of 0 degrees b. dispersion
c. refraction at an angle of 41.8 degrees d. all of the above will occur
6. If total internal reflection occurs at a glass-air surface, then _____.
a. no light is refracted
b. no light is reflected
c. light is leaving the air and hitting the glass with an incident angle greater than the
critical angle
d. light is leaving the air and hitting the glass with an incident angle less than the
critical angle
e. 17. When light from air hits a smooth piece of glass with the ray
perpendicular to the glass surface, the part of the light passing into the glass
_____.
a. will not change its speed b. will not change its direction
c. will not change its wavelength d. will not change its intensity
For Questions #18 - #20, consider the diagram below.

18. This person suffers from the problem of ____.

a.
b. farsightedness c. cataracts d. delusions
nearsightedness
9. This problem could most easily be corrected by the use of a(n) ____.
a. converging lens b. diverging lens c. achromatic lens d. good night's sleep
20. If the image was formed in front of the retina rather than behind the retina, then
the person would need to correct the vision problem by using a

a. converging lens b. diverging lens c. achromatic lens d. alarm clock

21. Dispersion occurs when _____.

a. some materials bend light more than other materials
b. a material slows down some colors more than others
c. a material changes some colors more than others
d. light has different speeds in different materials

2. A 3.0 cm tall object is placed along the principal axis of a thin converging lens of 30.0
cm focal length. If the object distance is 40.0 cm, which of the following best describes
the image distance and height, respectively?
a. 17.3 cm and 7.0 b. 120. cm and -9.0 c. 17.3 cm and 1.3 d. 120. cm and -1.0
cm cm cm cm
23. Which of the following best describes the image for a thin converging lens that
forms whenever the object is at a distance less than one focal length from the lens?
a. inverted, enlarged and real b. upright, enlarged and virtual
c. upright, reduced and virtual d. inverted, reduced and real
24. Which of the following best describes the image for a thin diverging lens that forms
whenever the magnitude of the object distance is less than that of the lens' focal
length?
a. inverted, enlarged and real b. upright, enlarged and virtual
c. upright, reduced and virtual d. inverted, reduced and real
The Critical Angle Derivation
the critical angle is defined as the angle of incidence that provides an angle of
refraction of 90-degrees. Make particular note that the critical angle is an angle of
incidence value. For the water-air boundary, the critical angle is 48.6-degrees. For the
crown glass-water boundary, the critical angle is 61.0-degrees. The actual value of the
critical angle is dependent upon the combination of materials present on each side of
the boundary.
Let's consider two different media - creatively named medium i (incident medium) and
medium r (refractive medium). The critical angle is the Θi that gives a Θr value of 90-
degrees. If this information is substituted into Snell's Law equation, a generic equation
for predicting the critical angle can be derived. The derivation is shown below.
ni *• sine(Θi) = nr • sine (Θr)
ni • sine(Θcrit) = nr • sine(90 degrees)
ni • sine(Θcrit) = nr
sine(Θcrit) = nr/ni
Θcrit= sine-1 (nr/ni) = invsine (nr/ni)

The critical angle can be calculated by taking the inverse-sine of the ratio of the indices of
refraction. The ratio of nr/ni is a value less than 1.0. In fact, for the equation to even give a
correct answer, the ratio of nr/ni must be less than 1.0. Since TIR only occurs if the refractive
medium is less dense than the incident medium, the value of ni must be greater than the value
of nr.
EXAMPLE # 1. Calculate the critical angle for the crown glass-air boundary. Refer to
the table of indices of refraction if necessary.
The solution to the problem involves the use of the above equation for the critical
angle.
Θcrit = sin-1 (nr/ni) = invsine (nr/ni)
Θcrit = sin-1 (1.000/1.52) = 41.1 degrees

Calculate the critical angle for the diamond-air boundary. Refer to the table of indices of
refraction if necessary.

The solution to the problem involves the use of the above equation for the critical
angle.
Θcrit = sin-1 (nr/ni) = invsine (nr/ni)
Θcrit = sin-1 (1.000/2.42) = 24.4 degrees
 Material Index of Refraction
Vacuum 1.0000 <--lowest optical density
Air 1.0003
Ice 1.31
Water 1.333
Ethyl Alcohol 1.36
Plexiglas 1.51
Crown Glass 1.52
Light Flint Glass 1.58
Dense Flint Glass 1.66
Zircon 1.923
Diamond 2.417
Rutile 2.907
Gallium phosphide 3.50 <--highest optical density

 Index of refraction of mediums vary on different wavelengths.

 Aberration - a departure from the expected or proper course.

SPHERICAL ABBERATION - This defect prohibits the mirror from focusing all the incident light from
the same location on an object to a precise point. While light rays originating at the same
location on an object reflect off the mirror and focus to a point, any light rays striking the edges
of the mirror fail to focus at that same point. The result is that the images of objects as seen in
spherical mirrors are often blurry.

Spherical aberration is most commonly corrected by use of a mirror with a different shape.
Usually, a parabolic mirror is substituted for a spherical mirror.
It occurs because the index of refraction of glass varies with the wavelength of light, i.e., glass bends
different colors by different amounts. This phenomenon is called dispersion. It appears as color fringing,
most visibly on tangential edges near the boundaries of the image. It is sometimes confused with
another effect, which we call pixel shift— a color channel offset that is typically uniform over the sensor
and can be caused by physical misalignment of multi-chip sensors or demosaicing errors.
The two types of chromatic aberration are illustrated above.
 Longitudinal chromatic aberration causes different wavelengths to focus on different image planes. It
cannot be measured from a single image by Imatest; it causes a degradation of MTF response– by differing
amounts for different colors.
 Lateral chromatic aberration is the color fringing that occurs because the magnification of the image
differs with wavelength. It tends to be far more visible than longitudinal CA.