EXPERIMENT No.

- 4

AIM
To trace the path of a ray of light passing through a rectangular glass slab for different
angles of incidence. Measure the angle of incidence, angle of refraction, angle of emergence
and interpret the result.

APPARATUS REQUIRED
Drawing board, drawing pins, plane sheets of white paper, a rectangular glass slab,
geometry instruments, and sharp pointed pins.

THEORY

1. When a beam of light falls obliquely at the interface of the two optical media,
direction of its path changes when it enters into the other medium. This
phenomenon exhibited by the light rays is called refraction of light. This is due to
the change in speed of light while going from one medium to the other.

2. During the refraction, when light travels from one medium to another transparent
medium, the speed and wavelength of light changes, whereas frequency remains
the same.
3. When a light ray travels from rarer to denser medium, its speed gets slow down
and the ray bends towards normal (∠i >∠r).
4. When the ray of light travels from denser to rarer medium, its speed goes up and
the ray bends away from the normal (∠i < ∠r).
From the above two points, we can conclude that the light bends on undergoing
refraction.
5. Laws of Refraction:

• At the point of incidence, the incident ray, the refracted ray and the
normal to the interface, all lie in the same plane.
• The ratio of the sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction
is constant for the same colour of light and for the same pair of
transparent media. Thus,
sin i/sin r = constant = n21
Where n21 is called the refractive index of the second medium with
respect to first medium.
This law is also known as Snell’s law of refraction.

6. The refraction takes place at both air-glass interface and glass-air interface of a
rectangular glass slab.

• When a light ray travels from air to glass, the angle of incidence is greater
than angle of refraction as ray bends towards normal.
• When a light ray travels from glass to air, the angle of refraction (also
called angle of emergent in case of glass) is greater than the angle of
 incidence of glass-air interface as ray of light bends away from the
normal.
• If the angle of incidence is zero, i.e. the incident ray is normal to the
interface, the ray of light continues to travel in the same direction after
refraction.
• The angle of emergence and angle of incidence will be equal.
Emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray but it will be laterally displaced
to the left of the incident ray.
• For the same angle of incidence, lateral displacement is proportional to
the thickness of the glass slab.
• For the same thickness of glass slab, the lateral displacement is
proportional to the angle of incidence.

PROCEDURE

1. Fix a white paper on a drawing board with the help of drawing pins and
divide the sheet in two parts by a vertical line.
2. Place a rectangular glass slab in the first part. Draw its boundary. Remove
the glass slab and label the boundary as A1, B1, C1, D1 as shown below.

3. Draw a normal (perpendicular) MN on the side A1B1 at a point O1, slightly

away from the centre towards A1
4. Draw an oblique line P1Q1 (incident ray) such that ∠P1O1M = 30° (Angle of
incidence). Fix two sharp pointed pin P1 and Q1 vertically erected on the line
P1O1 at a distance of 4 to 6 cm apart.
5. Place the glass slab again within its boundary. Look at the feet of pins (not
their heads) P1 and Q1 from the other parallel opposite face of the slab, i.e.
from C1D1 along the plane of paper. Fix other two pins R1 and S1 in such a
way that R1 , S1 and the image of P1 and Q1 lie on a same straight line.
6. Remove the glass slab and all the four pins. Encircle all the prick of the four
pins. Join the points R1 and S1 within the encircle and produce upto the
edge C1D1. Let R1S1 meet C1D1 at O1. This will act as an emergent ray.
7. Draw a normal M1N1 at O2. Join O1 and O2. It will represent the path of ray
inside the glass slab, i.e. refracted ray.
8. Measure the angle of emergence, i.e. ∠e = ∠N1O1S1 and angle of refraction,
i.e. ∠r = ∠NO1O2
9. Repeat the experiment by taking different angles of incidence such as 40°
and 50° and measure the angle of refraction and emergence.

RESULT

1. At the point of incidence the incident ray, refracted ray and the normal to
the air-glass interface, all lie in the plane of paper.
2. Within experimental limits, the angle of emergence and angle of incidence
are equal.
 3. The emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray.
4. Emergent ray is laterally displaced.
5. When the light ray travels from optically rarer medium (air) to optically
denser medium (glass), the angle of refraction is less than the angle of
incidence.
6. The angle of refraction at the air-glass interface and the incident angle at
the glass-air interface are found to be equal.
7. From the observation table, it is clear that with the increase in angle of
incidence, angle of refraction also increases.

PRECAUTIONS

1. Drawing board should be made of soft wood.

2. Glass slab must be clean and should be free from air bubble.
3. The pins should be fixed in vertical position.
4. The base of all the pins (on the paper) should be placed in a straight line.
5. Keep your eyes along the plane of paper and in line while observing the
image and fixing the pins.
6. For incident ray, the angle of incidence must lie between 30° and 60°
 (To be drawn on blank side Pg-1)

(Draw three sets of observations with angle of incidence 30°,40° and 50° on white sheet
of paper as mentioned in the observation table and attach it on the blank side Pg-2)
 (to be drawn on blank side Pg-3)

OBSERVATION TABLE

S. Angle of Angle of Angle of ∠i - ∠e Lateral Refractive index

incidence refraction emergence displacement
No.
𝑆𝑖𝑛 𝑖
∠i ∠r ∠e 𝑆𝑖𝑛 𝑟
1 30° 19° 30° 0° 0.9 cm 1.53

2 40° 25° 40° 0° 1.3 cm 1.52

3 50° 30° 50.2° 0.2° 1.9 cm 1.532