EXPERIMENT 10

TITLE: LIGHT AND WAVES

AIM: To verify Snell’s Law and determine the refractive index of a glass block

APPARATUS: Rectangular glass block, 4 optical pins, masking tape, drawing board, drawing
paper and protractor

DIAGRAM:

METHOD:
1. The drawing paper was attached to the drawing board with masking tape.
2. The glass block was placed on the drawing paper and traced the block's outline.
3. Pin 1 (P1) and Pin 2 (P2) were placed to define the incident ray and observed from opposite side
of glass block their images.
4. Images were observed in glass block images of (P 1), (P2) and moved head slightly until they
appeared in line with each other.
5. Pin 3 (P3) and Pin 4 (P4) were placed to block the images (P 1) and (P2) in the glass block (hence all
four pins appear in a straight line).
6. The glass block was removed and all pins.
7. A line was drawn through the holes of (P 1), (P2) and (P3), (P4) to the glass block.
8. The normal (N) was drawn for (P1), (P2) and the normal (M) for Pin 1 (P3), (P4) at the point of
incidence on the glass block.
 9. The line was drawn to join the normal (N) and (M) to represent the path of light through the
glass block.
10. A protractor was used to measure the angle of incidence (i) and the angle of reflection (r) and
record the results in a table
11. The value of Sine (i) and Sine (r) were calculated and recorded in the table.
12. Experiment was repeated for 5 more values of Sine (i) and Sine (r).
13. A graph of Sine (i) vs Sine (r) was plotted and calculated the gradient.

RESULTS:

PRECAUTIONS:
1. Make sure the glass block isn’t cracked
2. Don’t lose the four pins
3. Try not to make human errors while drawing the lines
4. Make sure to tap done the drawing paper

SOURCES OF ERROR:
1. Cracking the glass block
2. Losing the four pins
3. Drawing the lines without a ruler or stay sphere.
4. Moving the glass bock into the pins and ripping the paper

CONCLUSION:
1. Yes, because the experiment showed that the refraction shows the bending of the path of a light
wave as it passes across the boundary separating two media and is caused by the change in
speed experienced by a wave when it changes medium.
2. The refractive index of the glass block = n = sin i/ sin r = 0.94 / 0.57 = 1.65.