GIVE REASON WHY (REFRACTION):

1. Stars appear to twinkle in the night sky: As a star’s

light pierces our atmosphere, each single stream of
starlight is refracted – caused to change direction, slightly
– by the various temperature and density layers in Earth’s
atmosphere. Thus giving an appearance as if the star is
twinkling, and also appear farther away from us.

2. Sun is seen a little before sunrise / after sunset: The earth is surrounded by an atmosphere
which is denser near the surface of the earth.
When the rays of light from the sun enter the
earth's atmosphere from outer space, they
travel from a rarer medium to a denser
medium. Hence, they bend away from the
normal on refraction. Hence, even when the
sun is below the horizon while rising or
setting, its rays reach us due to refraction and
it appears to be above the horizon.

3. Real Depth & Apparent Depth: An object placed in a denser

medium when viewed from the rarer medium appears to be at
a depth lesser than the actual/real depth, due to the refraction
of light away from the normal, as it travels from the denser
medium into the rarer medium.

Similarly, if an object in a rarer medium is viewed from the

denser medium, it appears to be at a greater distance (or height) than its real distance, due to
refraction of light towards the normal as the ray of light travels from rarer to denser medium.

4. Bending of a stick: This phenomenon occurs due to property of light called refraction of light.
When immersing a stick in water, the rays of light pass from denser medium to rarer medium
 and they move away the normal. So the part of stick immersed in water appears to be broken
away the normal drawn at the interface and gives an apparent bending. It also appears short like
being raised up in the water.

GIVE REASON WHY (TOTAL INTERNAL REFLECTION):

5. Mirage Formation: Mirage is an optical phenomenon which creates an illusion of the presence
of water. Mirage is caused due to total Internal Reflection of light by the various layers of air.
When the light rays from the sun travel straight through the atmosphere, these light rays travel
at different speeds through the hot and cold air. For mirage to occur the ground should be very
hot and the surrounding air cold. The layer which is above the ground gets warmed. The light
ray gets refracted when the light moves through the cold air and into the hot air layer. This is
how mirage occurs.

6. Test tube in water appears shiny / air bubbles in a glass paper weight are shiny: This is
due to Total Internal Reflection. When an empty test tube is
inserted in water, the light trying to enter the test tube
undergoes total internal reflection and shines like silver. The
surface of the test tube separates water (denser medium) from
air (rarer medium) in the tube. The incident rays on the surface
of tube shows the phenomenon of total internal reflection
which makes the surface of an empty test tube shiny like a
mirror.
7. CRACK IN GLASS VESSEL APPEARS SHINY: This is due to total internal reflection. If there is a
crack in glass vessel, at crack there is a glass-air boundary. When light rays incident on glass-air
boundary at an angle greater than 42°, total internal reflection is taking place. Hence a crack in
glass vessel often shines like a mirror.

8. SPARKLING OF DIAMONDS: A diamond appears to sparkle due to

the phenomenon of total internal reflection. Diamond has a really
high refractive index (≈2.4) and because of that the critical angle for
total internal reflection to occur is much smaller (~25o). So a greater
percentage of the incident light gets internally reflected several
times, due to the cut of the diamond; before it emerges from the
diamond, making the diamond look really shiny.

9. OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES: Optical fibre is used to transmit light over long distances with
negligible energy loss. They apply the principle of total internal reflection. An optical fibre
consists of a very thin core of high purity glass. The core is covered by a second layer (cladding)
also made from high purity glass. The cladding is less dense than the core and has a lower
refractive index. Thus light rays passing along the core at an angle greater than the critical angle
are totally internally reflected. The surface of the high purity glass core acts like a perfect mirror
and the light ray is continuously reflected along the length of the optical fibre core. The cladding
is covered with a protective plastic buffer coating.