Lab 5 – Refraction of Light and Thin lenses

Part 1: Confirming Snell’s Law

Angle of incidence (°) sin𝜃1 sin𝜃2 𝑛2

5 0.087 0.052 1.67
10 0.174 0.122 1.43
20 0.342 0.233 1.47
30 0.501 0.342 1.46
40 0.643 0.438 1.47
50 0.766 0.530 1.45
60 0.866 0.574 1.51
70 0.940 0.616 1.53
80 0.985 0.656 1.50
85 0.996 0.669 1.49

Best estimate of n2:

Average: 1.50

Standard deviation: 0.067

Standard error: 0.021

Best estimate: 1.5 ± 0.02 – This shows an average n2 value of 1.50 with an uncertainty of 0.02, which
is the standard error. Not all of the values obtained for n2 fall within its best estimate, indicating that
they do not all agree with each other. However, the differences that can be seen are most likely due
to measurement error. My best estimate generally agrees with the value from the simulation.
Part 2: Further Investigation of Light Intensity

At an incidence angle of 10°, The intensity of refracted light is 95.87% while that of reflected light is
4.13%.

Incidence angle (°) Intensity of refracted light (%) Intensity of reflected light (%)
10 95.87 4.13
20 95.38 4.62
30 94.26 5.74
40 92.52 7.48
50 88.98 11.02
60 82.72 17.28

The total intensity is related to the intensity of the reflected and refracted light, because the sum of
reflected and refracted light intensity always equals the total intensity at 100% (which is the
intensity of the incidence ray).

Qualitatively, as incidence angle increases, the intensity of refracted light decreases and the intensity
of reflected light increases.
Part 3: Experimenting with Thin Lenses

P1 = 20.0

P2 = 14.3

Q1 = 20.0

Q2 = 33.4
P1 = 20.0

P2 = 6.7

Q1 = 20.0

Q2 = -20.1
P1 = 20.0

P2 = -8.2

Q1 = 20.0

Q2 = 47.1