Refraction

◼ Although light travels in straight lines, it bends when it passes from one medium into
another, such as from air into water (this is called refraction)
◼ Refraction is due to changes in the speed of light
◼ When light moves from air into water, its speed decreases (different media slow down
light by different amounts)
◼ The more light slows down, the more the light is refracted
◼ Light only refracts at the boundary when it is entering or leaving a medium

The Index of Refraction and Speed of Light

◼ In a vacuum of space, where there are few particles, light travels at almost 300million
m/s
◼ The amount by which a transparent medium decreases the speed of light is indicated by a
number called the index of refraction
◼ The larger the refractive index, the more the medium decreases the speed of light
◼ See table 11.5 on page 437 for indices of refraction (or an the handout)
◼ The refractive index of a material (n) is equal to the speed of light in a vacuum (c)
divided by the speed of light in the medium (v)
Examples:
1. The speed of light in a sample of glass is 1.91 x 108 m/s. What is the refractive index of this
glass?

2. What is the speed of light in water?

How Light Refracts
◼ The angles of the refracted light rays are measured from the normal
◼ When light travels from a higher refractive index medium into a lower, it bends away
from the normal
◼ When light travels from a lower refractive index medium into a higher, it bends toward
the normal
Snell’s Law
◼ Snell’s Law is a formula that uses values for the index of refraction to calculate the new
angle that a ray will take as a beam of light strikes the interface between two media

n sinɵ = n sinɵ
1 1 2 2

◼ The indices of refraction of the two media are n1 and n2 and the angles of incidence and
refraction are ɵ1 and ɵ2
Examples:
1. When light passes from air into water at an angle of 60° from the normal, what is the angle of
refraction?

2. A laser beam is passed from the water through the material A. The angle of incidence is 50°
and the angle of refraction is 27°. What is the index of refraction?

3. Draw the normal and the refracted ray for the following:

n= 1.3

n= 2.3
Apparent Depth

Partial Reflection and Refraction

E.g. water in a pond
◼ Some light is reflected back and you can see your own reflection and some light is
refracted and you can see underwater rocks, plants, fish, etc.

Extension (see handout)

Trigonometric Ratios
sinɵ = opposite/hypotenuse
cosɵ = adjacent/hypotenuse
tanɵ = opposite/adjacent

Pythagorean Theorem
opposite2 + ajdacent2 = hypotenuse2
Angle of Deviation
◼ As light travels through a prism the direction of the light leaving the prism is different
than the direction in which it entered.
◼ The amount of change is called the angle of deviation
◼ The apex angle is the angle between the two faces of the prism.
◼ Recall that the sum of angles in a triangle equal 180 degrees
Example: Light enters the side of a glass prism (n=1.52), which has an apex angle of 52.0° at an
angle of incidence of 56.0°. Determine the angle of deviation for the light after it has passed
through the prism.
Total Internal Reflection
◼ In total internal reflection, light reflects completely off the inside wall of a denser
medium (higher index of refraction) rather than passing through the wall into a less dense
medium
◼ This effect happens in water as a ray of light reaches the surface between the water and
the air
◼ At a certain angle, called the critical angle, the refracted ray of light follows a path
exactly along the surface of the water
◼ If the angle of incidence is increased even farther, the light ray will be completely
reflected back inside the water

Calculating the Critical Angle

1. What is the critical angle for the interface between acrylic and ruby?

2. The critical angle for a special glass in air is 44°. What is the critical angle if the glass is
immersed in water?
Applications of Total Internal Reflection
Fibre Optics
◼ Fibre optics is a technology that uses light to transmit information along a glass cable
(has a small critical angle)
◼ Light is then reflected along the entire fibre until it reaches the other end
◼ Dispersion is the refraction of white light into separate wavelengths or colours (occurs in
diamond and raindrops)
◼ White light is refracted twice, once when it enters the prism and once when it leaves the
prism
◼ When the white light leaves the prism, the light is separated into a spectrum of colours
◼ Each colour of light travels at a slightly different speed in any medium
Rainbows
◼ After a rainstorm, the sky is filled with tiny water droplets
◼ Sunlight enters a water droplet and refracts towards the normal greater than the critical
angle. It then reflects off the inner surface of the droplet, and then refracts again when
leaving the droplet
◼ The two refractions result in dispersion of the light and the image is a virtual image
because your brain projects these refracted light rays backwards and forms a virtual
image of the visible spectrum (which is why you can only see the rainbow when the sun
is behind you).
◼ When you see a rainbow, the colours of light that you see come from different droplets
◼ Because red light is directed downward more than the other colours, you can only see the
red light that is coming from droplets higher in the sky
Shimmering
◼ Shimmering is caused by the refraction of light in unevenly heated air
◼ When light travels through air at different temperatures, it refracts because hot air is less
dense than cooler air
◼ Because there is no distinct boundary between sections of different air temperatures, the
light does not bend at one specific point (it travels along a curved path)
◼ Also, because air is usually moving, the direction and amount of bending are constantly
changing
Mirages
◼ Mirages appear when light travelling from cool air into warmer air bends away from the
normal
◼ Eventually total internal reflection occurs in the lowest (hottest) air layer
◼ This light ray eventually reaches your eyes
◼ What looks like a puddle of water from the distance is actually an image of the sky that is
produced as light from the sky is bent near the surface of the road up into the eyes of the
observer