Chapter 4

Experiment 2:
Snell’s Law of Refraction

4.1 Introduction
In this and the following lab the light is viewed as a ray. A ray is a line that has an
origin but does not have an end. Light is an electromagnetic disturbance and, as such, is
described using Maxwell’s equations, which expresses the relationship between the electric
and magnetic fields in an oscillating wave.
Light propagates as a wave; yet, many optical phenomena can be explained by describing
light in terms of rays. In the model for light, rays in a homogeneous medium travel in
straight lines. This model is referred to as Geometric Optics and is a very elementary
theory. In this theory light travels from its origin at a source in a straight line, unless it
encounters a boundary to the medium. Beyond this boundary may be another medium
which is distinguished by having a speed of light different from the original medium. In
addition, light may be reflected at the boundary back into the original medium. A light ray
that returns to the original medium is said to be “reflected”. A ray that passes into the other
medium is said to be “refracted”. In most interactions between light and a boundary, both
reflection and refraction occur.
In order to frame laws that govern these phenomena we must define some terms. The
boundary between two media is defined as a surface. The orientation of a surface at any
specific point is characterized by a line perpendicular to the surface that we call the normal.
A ray may encounter a boundary at any arbitrary incidence angle. The angle of incidence
is measured with respect to the normal line. A reflected ray will have an angle of reflection
that is also measured with respect to the normal. The refracted ray will be oriented by the
angle of refraction measured between the ray and the normal to the surface.

Checkpoint
For geometric Optics what assumption is made about the nature of light?

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What distinguishes the two media is that the speed of light is different from one medium
to the other. We define the index of refraction n to be the measure of how much different
the speed of light is in a certain medium from that of light through a vacuum. Light travels
through a vacuum at 299,792,458 m/s. This speed is thought to be a universal constant and
the highest speed allowed in nature as postulated in Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity.
We use the symbol c to represent this speed.
The index of refraction is a characteristic of the medium. It is the only thing that
distinguishes one medium from another in geometric optics. It is defined as the ratio of the
speed of light in a vacuum to the speed in a particular medium of interest,
c c
n= or v = . (4.1)
v n
Therefore, the value of the index of refraction is always greater than unity. Gasses have an
index of refraction close to 1 (nair = 1.00028), while for water the index is about 1.33 and
for plastic it is approximately 1.4. Depending on the type of glass the index of refraction of
glass can vary from 1.5 to 1.7.
Normally we might think that the index of refraction is a constant that is the same for
all light. The index of refraction actually depends on the frequency (color) of the light wave
to a small degree across the visible part of the spectrum and as such is different for different
colors of light. The rules for reflection of light are:

1) The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection,

θ1 = θ10 (4.2)

where θ1 is the angle of incidence and θ10 is the angle of the reflected ray that
propagates in the same medium. (This is the commonly known rule, but this next
rule is rarely stated though equally important)
2) The incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface, all lie in the
same plane.

Checkpoint
What is the law of reflection?

We will not formally investigate these rules in this lab although you will be able to observe
the phenomena of reflection as a side issue while performing this lab experiment. The rules
for refraction are not so obvious although they where well known to the ancients.

1) The first rule is often cited as Snell’s Law; it is:

sin θ1 n2
= or n1 sin θ1 = n2 sin θ2 . (4.3)
sin θ2 n1

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where θ2 is the angle of refraction of the ray that is transmitted into the second
medium.
2) The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the surface, all lie in the
same plane.

Checkpoint
What is Snell’s Law? What phenomenon does Snell’s Law describe?

In general the path of a light ray is reversible in that if a light ray were to be reversed it
would follow the same path. A ray traveling from a low index of refraction to a high index of
refraction will experience a bending toward the normal. However a ray passing from a high
index of refraction to a lower index will experience a bending away from the normal. The
angle of refraction will be larger than the angle of incidence. So, what happens when the
angle of refraction is greater than 90◦ for a given incidence angle. In this case light cannot
be transmitted through the interface and as such it is reflected totally. The efficiency for this
reflection is 99.99% (as compared to 95% for a typical silvered surface mirror). The largest
angle for which a ray will be transmitted is the critical angle. One can show that the sine
of this angle is the inverse of the ratio of the index of refraction of the first medium to the
index of the second medium. If the second medium is air (n = 1.00028), the sine of the angle
is effectively the reciprocal of the index of refraction of the first material.

Checkpoint
In optics angles are always measured with respect to what?

4.2 The Experiment

The experiment consists of a single thin bundle of light rays exiting a light box. This ray
will be incident upon a ‘D’ shaped dielectric so that we may deduce whether the laws of
reflection and of refraction are obeyed by the interaction between the light and the object.
A picture of the experiment is shown in Figure 4.1. We should recall that ‘dielectrics’ were
placed between capacitor plates to increase capacitance and to insulate between the plates.
Our refracting medium is a transparent dielectric.

4.2.1 Reflections and Refraction

In this experiment you will use the Light Ray Box shown on the right side of Figure 4.1. It
consists of a light source and a Multi-slit Slide Set. The light source housing is mounted on

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a colored plastic base in which it can slide back and forth. The utility of this feature will
be explained in a future experiment. The Multi-slit Slide is a flat square piece of plastic or
aluminum with notches cut into each of the four edges. The Multi-slit Slide slips into a slot
on the end of the ray box to create rays of light. Choose the side with just one narrow notch
and place that side down as you slip the a Multi-slit Slide into place. A single narrow beam
should be observed emerging from the ray box.
Also in this experiment you will use a turntable (goniometer) to orient the dielectric
surface. The turntable has some friction with its stationary stand, so it is suggested that you
spend several minutes practicing the act of changing angles before aligning the experiment to
take your data. With some care you should be able to rotate the turntable and dielectric on
its stand without sliding the stand on the tabletop. Once you can do this reliably, carefully
place the dielectric ‘D’ on the turntable as the turntable markings indicate. As long as you
do not suddenly move the turntable, friction will keep the dielectric on the turntable at
this location and will allow you to rotate the dielectric while reading the angles from the
turntable’s periphery.
Figure 4.1 shows the experiment in progress. In the figure the light passes through the
dielectric before striking the planar surface (the ‘relevant surface’ in the figure). Note that
the ray strikes the planar surface precisely at the center of the turntable; this is also the
pivot point for the turntable. As long as neither the ray box nor the turntable slides on the
tabletop, this ray will always strike the relevant surface at the pivot point. In the figure it
is easy to see that the incident ray is 40◦ from one side of the normal and the reflected ray
is 40◦ from the opposite side of the same normal. The refracted ray has spread considerably
(can you guess why?), but its refraction angle is about 73◦ (what is its uncertainty?). Is
there any trend that you note regarding these refracted rays and how they spread?

4.2.2 Index of Refraction and the Law of Reflection

Now we need to align the ray from the ray box carefully before we begin taking data.
Carefully rotate the turntable so that the flat side of the dielectric faces the ray box. Carefully
slide and tilt the ray box so that the light strikes the dielectric precisely at the turntable
pivot and such that both the incident light and the refracted light illuminates the protractor
scale around the turntable’s periphery. Carefully rotate the turntable until the incident ray
is at 0◦ . At this angle only, the refracted ray should also illuminate the opposite side of the
turntable at 0◦ . Keeping the incident ray at 0◦ , carefully adjust the ray box position to point
the ray at the pivot point and/or carefully adjust the dielectric’s position on the turntable
until the light ray passes straight across the turntable through the pivot point. This makes
your apparatus ready to start taking data.
Draw a nice table in your notebook (or execute Ga3 and prepare the columns and headers)
to record the incident angle, the angle of reflection, the angle of refraction, and a calculated
index of refraction. You will need 25-30 rows. Since neither 0◦ nor 90◦ will provide useful
data, it is recommended that you begin with an incidence angle of 5◦ and that you increment
by 10◦ between measurements. Carefully record the incident angle, the angle of reflection,
and the angle of refraction. (How accurately can you measure these?) Always estimate the

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Relevant
Surface
Dielectric

Incident
Refracted Ray
Ray Ray
Box
Reflected
Ray

Figure 4.1: A photograph of the light ray box, dielectric object, and turntable that we will
use to investigate ray optics.

angle using the center of the ray.

Compute the index of refraction using
sin θair
n= (4.4)
sin θdielectric
where θair is on the flat side of the dielectric and θdielectric is on the round side of the dielectric.
For now keep four significant digits in n.
The website offers a template for Vernier Software’s Graphical Analysis 3.4 (Ga3) pro-
gram. Your lab instructor will show you how to use the program if you haven’t already used
it in previous labs. Plot the index of refraction for the Lucite plastic versus an integer index.
Students may also choose to use Excel R
for this purpose.
Observe if there are any systematic changes in the index of refraction. Before disassem-
bling your experiment, carefully repeat any data points that seem to vary substantially from
the observed trend. To determine whether systematic changes are significant, one must have
an idea of how much deviation in the index can be attributed to random variations. One
way to assess this is to find an average value for the index, and from that to determine a
standard deviation. The average and standard deviation can be obtained from the Ana-
lyze/Statistics menu item in Ga3. You will need to draw a box around your data points
before the Statistics will be active. Review Section 2.6.1 for strategies to specify statistical
measurements objectively.

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Checkpoint
Do all of your reflected rays obey the Law of Reflection?

4.2.3 Total Internal Reflection

Do you have any incident rays that do not have refracted rays? Is this consistent with Snell’s
law? We would like to observe this “total internal reflection” in more detail. First, where does
the energy in the incident light ray go if it is not transmitted through the surface? Do you
observe anything that supports your hypothesis? Second, we want to measure this “critical
angle” of incidence where the slightest rotation results in refracted light. The symmetry
of the planar surface indicates that there should be two critical angles in 360◦ of rotation.
Measure both of them and verify that they are the same but on opposite sides of the normal.
Also observe the angles of the reflected rays; does the Law of Refection suggest a way to
use these reflections to improve your critical angle measurements? If you were diving and
looking up, this would be the opening angle of a “critical cone” outside of which you could
not see through the surface.
Use these critical angle measurements to calculate the index of refraction,
nair 1
n= ≈ ,
sin θc sin θc
and specify the mean and standard error (see Section 2.6.1). Compare with the value you got
in Section 4.2.2. Does it agree within the uncertainty of the first measurement as determined
from the standard error? Might the error in your measurement of critical angle be large
enough to explain any disagreement? Comment on this in your Analysis.

Checkpoint
If two adjacent media have the same index of refraction, n, can you observe the
phenomena of reflection or refraction?

Checkpoint
What is a critical angle? What are the two conditions that allow total internal
reflection to take place?

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4.2.4 Optical Fiber

One of the more recent and ubiquitous applications of total internal reflection is the optical
fiber. Fiber optics has revolutionized the communications industry. A fiber consists of a
long thin thread of glass called the core surrounded by an outer shell of a material with a
lower index of refraction called the cladding. Light entering the end of the core of an optical
fiber is transmitted or piped to the other end with very little loss in intensity even though
the fiber may be bent in a circular shape. The thinness of the fiber and the lower index
of refraction in the cladding ensures that light will always strike the fiber side at an angle
greater than the critical angle for total internal reflection and be totally reflected back into
the fiber. Thus the light bounces off the inside as it caroms down the length of the fiber
following every bend or twist.
Light is composed of thousands of discernible wavelengths (colors) and each color can
be modulated to communicate many billions of bits of information per second. Intelligible
voice in one telephone call requires only 50,000 bits per second. One fiber can communicate
hundreds of thousands of phone calls. More complex information requires more bandwidth
and thus fewer channels can be communicated on a fiber.
Find the optical fiber among the items on your lab table. Be careful in handling the
fiber. It is, after all, a piece of glass and will break if bent too sharply. Align one end of the
fiber with the ray emerging from the ray box. Observe the light emerging from the other end
of the fiber. It will look like a bright pinpoint of light. Point this end of the fiber vertically
down onto a sheet of paper on the table with the end of the fiber held about five millimeters
above the table. You should see a bright spot on the paper where the light rays coming from
the fiber hit the paper. The light has been channeled through the fiber even around the
bends as the ray bounces off the inside surface of the fiber, possibly many times. The light
persists with little loss of intensity because of the great efficiency of these reflections that are
at such steep angles to the surface normal as always to be in the regime of total reflection.
Now, carefully rotate the incident end of the fiber to introduce an angle between the
incident ray and the fiber end’s normal. Observe that the spot on the paper has expanded
to form a ring of light. Note these observations and try to explain them in your Data.

Checkpoint
In the case of fiber optics do you expect the core or the cladding to have a greater
value for the index of refraction? Why are optical fibers immune to electrical noise?

4.2.5 Lenticular Lenses

Most of us have walked past displays at the movie theater or the video store and noticed
that the image suddenly changed as we walked past. Some of us were very curious how this
magic happened. Before we leave today we would like to dispel some of the mystery behind

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this marvelous invention.

(a) (b) purple

lenticular lens is
seen red
blue
is is
seen seen

blue
red
lenticular print

Figure 4.2: A lenticular lens placed on a lenticular print in (a) refracts the light from
parallel strips from the print into a common direction in (b) that can be seen by a passerby.
As the viewer passes, he sees adjacent parallel strips showing a different image.

Place the flat side of the dielectric against the slit in the ray box and note what happens
to the projected ray as you slowly slide it across the slit. We see that the ray gets deflected
by the curved surface of the block. When the ray is on the left side of center it gets deflected
to the right and when the ray is on the right side of center it gets deflected to the left.
Therefore, someone standing on the right will see the light emitted from the left side of
center and as he walks toward center the light he sees is emitted from closer to center.
Now imagine that the block has much smaller radius, is much longer, and that there are
hundreds placed side by side. This is illustrated in Figure 4.2. Figure 4.2(a) shows a 3D
perspective drawing of an abbreviated lenticular print and lens. An end view of the system
is shown in Figure 4.2(b). A viewer standing on the left side of Figure 4.2(b) would see a
field of pure blue; but as he walks to the right, the field would slowly change to purple when
he is in the center and finally to red when he is at the right side.
Each segment of the lenticular lens yields one horizontal pixel. Instead of the solid color
shown in the figure, the vertical strip’s color can be varied to match the corresponding image.
Similarly, the adjacent strip’s color is varied to match the adjacent image. It is in this way
that each image is formed and separated from the other images.
By projecting one image toward the viewer’s left eye and the same scene from a shifted
perspective toward the viewer’s right eye, the lenticular lens can also simulate a 3D image.
In this case, however, the scene cannot be smoothly changed as the viewer moves across the
display; it is necessary that the adjacent image is intended for the other eye.
Photoshop R
, GIMP, and other image processing applications have “banding” plugins to
generate suitable lenticular prints from an ordered series of images. Additionally, lenticular

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lenses may be purchased from Amazon.com and ebay. It would be wise to consider the de-
sired product (http://www.microlens.com/pages/choosing_right_lens.htm) before wasting
too much time figuring this out for yourself.

4.3 Analysis
Verify the self-consistency of Snell’s law by comparing the two indices of refraction measured
in Section 4.2.2 and Section 4.2.3. Use the strategy in Section 2.9. What have you noticed
while performing the experiment that might (probably does?) contribute to the difference
between these measurements? Might these other sources of errors be large enough to explain
your differences?

4.4 Conclusions
What have you measured that you and/or your science peers might need to use in the future?
What physical relations do your data support? Contradict? Which are not satisfactorily
tested? Communicate with complete sentences and define all symbols. (Or better yet, label
your equations above and simply name them here in your Conclusions.)
How might this experiment be improved? If you were to repeat the experiment, what
would you try to do differently and why? What applications might benefit from your
observations?

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