Experiment # __

“The law of Reflection”

NAME: SECTION:
Objectives:
At the end of the activity, the student should be able to verify and understand the Law of Reflection.
Materials:
• Laser pointer, glass rod cylinder, flat mirror, paper protractor on last page
• Support for mirror (clamps,) paper, pen or pencil, 12” ruler with cm thick marks

Procedure and Observations

1. Describe the direction you think a single beam of light will reflect from the surface of a mirror:
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2. Make a prediction - will the angle that the beam of light reflects from the surface of the mirror be smaller,
larger, or the same as the angle of the original beam to the surface of the mirror?
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3.On the last page of this experiment sheet there is a picture of a protractor – use that page and place the page
on a table. Place a flat mirror on the straight-line part of the protractor. Set-up your Laser pointer and glass
cylinder so that the Laser projects a vertical line that hits the mirror at the center point of the protractor. Project
this line at a 45-degree angle to the flat surface of the mirror as measured on your protractor
4. Note that depending on the thickness of the glass of your mirror, reflections may not come just from the front
of the mirror and that other reflections of the Laser light may be seen. Observe this closely. How might you
explain this effect?
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5. Make 2 dots along each projected Laser light line then using a ruler, trace along the projected Laser light line
to mark the incident and reflected rays onto the protractor paper (resulting in the picture below when the Laser
is turned off). Remove the mirror from the paper then extend the ray lines to the mirror line.
6. Measure the angle of incidence θi and angle of reflection θr from the perpendicular (0º) line on your
protractor paper. Write down your results in the table below.’
7. Do all of the above again with the Laser pointed at the mirror using 20 and 60 degrees – fill in your results in
the table below.

Case # Measured angle of Measured angle of

incidence reflection

8.  Explain any relationship you have found between the 2 measured angles (was your prediction above is
correct?)
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9. Describe where the incident ray, reflected ray and normal line lie. This is the second law of reflection.
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Generalization:
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@EisleKeithR.Tapia’19-20