The Optical Laws of Refraction And Reflection OF A Light

Beam – Fall 2022

Institution: Diablo Valley College

Course: PHYS – 120 General College Physics 1

Instructor: Crowder Kurt

Author: Chris Cana

Lab Assignment: The Optical Law OF Refraction And

Reflection OF A Light Beam

Introduction

The study of the optical laws of reflection and refraction of light is of decisive importance for the
optical beam path’s practical research. As is known, light has dualism, from which it follows that
it can be considered either as a flow of particles, called photons or as an electromagnetic wave.
The basic version of studying these laws does not consider the wave properties of light but
instead operates with such quantities as the angle of incidence, refractive index, and distortion. It
should be recognized that these quantities are not constant and depend directly on the position of
the light source in space and the nature of the medium through which the beam passes. This lab
report summarizes what is known about the optical laws of refraction and reflection by
considering seven different cases of the light path. The work is a valuable material for students to
systematize and structure their knowledge of the physics of light.

Procedure
The laboratory experiment was performed in seven steps. Seven screenshots depicting the
diagram of the optical setup for the study are presented sequentially below.
 Figure 1. Case A, illustrating the
reflection of a light beam from the water surface at an angle of 20 degrees.
Figure 2. Case B, illustrating the refraction of a light beam at a phase boundary at an angle of 47
degrees.

Figure 3. Case C, illustrating the refraction of a light beam at a phase boundary at a degree angle of 13.
Figure 4. Case D, illustrating the internal reflection of light at the glass-air interface.
 Figure 5. Case
E, illustrating the internal reflection of light at the air-glass boundary for a semicircular object.
Figure 6. Case F, illustrating the passage of light rays through the air and glass medium of a square
object.
Figure 7. Case G, illustrating the double refraction of a beam in a prism.

Data Observations & Calculations

The following formulas were used to calculate the corresponding values: percentage error, mean
value, refractive index, critical angle, and deflection angle:

Table A. Law of reflection.

Trial number Angle of Incidence Angle of Reflection Percent Difference

1 60 60 0

2 20 20 0
 3 50 50 0

4 10 10 0

Table B. Law of refraction.

Material Trial Angle of Angle of Refractive Index (equation Average of three

number Incidence Refraction 1) values

Water 1 30 23 1.28 1.32

Water 2 40 29 1.33

Water 3 80 47 1.35

Glass 4 30 20 1.46 1.49

Glass 5 40 25 1.52

Glass 6 80 41 1.50

Mystery 7 30 12 2.40 2.44

A

Mystery 8 40 15 2.48
A

Mystery 9 80 24 2.42
A

Table C. Law of refraction again.

Material Trial Angle of Angle of Refractive Index (equation Average of three

number Incidence Refraction 1) values

Glass 1 12 8 1.49 1.41

 Glass 2 30 20 1.46

Glass 3 40 30 1.29

Mystery B 4 13 8 1.62 1.50

Mystery B 5 30 17 1.71

Mystery 6 40 33
B

Table D. Total internal reflection.

Material Trial number Angle of Incidence Angle of Refraction Critical Angle Percent Error in C
Calculated

Water-Air 1 49 90 48.8 0.41%

Glass-Air 2 43 90 41.8 2.87%

Table E. Total internal reflection again (since n2>n1, there are no solutions).

Material Trial number Angle of Incidence Angle of Refraction Critical Angle Percent Error in C
Calculated

Glass-Air 1 40 90 41.8 4.31%

Mystery-Air 2 25 90 24.2 3.31%

Table F. Refraction light ray shift.

Trial Angle of Angle of Thickness ‘h’ of the Measured Value of Shift in Calcu
Number Incidence Refraction square (cm) the Ray the S

1 33 20 3 1.4 7.18

2 20 14 0.3 0.4 3.23

 3 15 9 0.3 0.3 3.17

Table G. Deviation of light from a prism.

Trial Angle of Angle of Angle of Angle of Calculated Angle of

Number Incidence Refraction Prism Deviation Deviation

1 90 47 60 49 47

2 20 79 60 42 39

3 7 74 60 20 21

Data Analysis
The data of the tables generally confirm well the known information about the laws of
refraction and reflection. Table A showed that the beam’s angle of incidence is
numerically identical to the angle of reflection, which was confirmed by a zero percent
error. Table B showed that the refractive index could be calculated through the known
values of the incidence angle and the angle of refraction. An appropriate formula was
used for this purpose. In general, the results were reliable, given the low error. Table C
also confirmed that the refractive index could be calculated from the known angles,
even if a solid is used as the medium. In this case, the percentage error was already
much higher, which was caused by the inaccuracy of the angle measurement in the
absence of deeper detail of the virtual instrument.

In addition, since reference data for unknown material B were not available, the error
percentage for this case was not calculated. Table D and Table E showed that it is
possible to determine the critical angle of refraction of a light beam for two media, with
only the refractive magnitudes of the media needed to be known. The error results for
these Tables are low, and the error can be fully justified by the inaccuracy of the original
ray angle of incidence measurement. The largest errors were noticeable for the case F,
in which the measure of the difference between the straight beam and the refracted
beam was determined. Since the percentage error averaged 86%, this indicates an
extremely low level of test reliability. Case H was not considered because support for
the Flash player, which is necessary for the effective operation of the simulator, has
been suspended on all modern computers. Table G showed that it was possible to
calculate the value of the deflection angle for a triangular prism using the known
formula. The percentage errors did not exceed 7.70% for each of the three cases, and
any errors were due to a lack of measurement accuracy.

Conclusion
To summarize, it should be said that the work performed entirely confirms the possibility
of using the optical laws of refraction and reflection of a light beam. In the work, six out
of eight cases were studied due to the impossibility of performing two. The total errors in
each of the cases were not too high, and therefore we can declare good reliability of the
results obtained.