Nature and propagation of Light, Reflection & Refraction, Image

Lights:

Light is electromagnetic radiation within a certain portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. The
word usually refers to visible light, which is visible to the human eye and is responsible for the
sense of sight. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700
nanometres (nm).

Figure 1: Spectrum of Electromagnetic wave

Nature of Light:

Beginning in 1670 and progressing over three decades, Isaac Newton developed and championed
his corpuscular hypothesis, arguing that the perfectly straight lines of reflection demonstrated light's
particle nature; only particles could travel in such straight lines. He explained refraction by positing
that particles of light accelerated laterally upon entering a denser medium. Around the same time,
Newton's contemporaries Robert Hooke and Christiaan Huygens—and later Augustin-Jean
Fresnel—mathematically refined the wave viewpoint, showing that if light traveled at different
speeds in different media (such as water and air), refraction could be easily explained as the
medium-dependent propagation of light waves. The resulting Huygens–Fresnel principle was
extremely successful at reproducing light's behavior and was subsequently supported by Thomas
Young's 1803 discovery of double-slit interference. The wave view did not immediately displace

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the ray and particle view, but began to dominate scientific thinking about light in the mid-19th
century, since it could explain polarization phenomena that the alternatives could not.

In 1900, Max Planck hypothesized that the frequency of light emitted by the black body depended
on the frequency of the oscillator that emitted it, and the energy of these oscillators increased
linearly with frequency (according to his constant h, where E = hf). However, in 1905 Albert
Einstein took Planck's black body model to produce his solution to another outstanding problem of
the day: the photoelectric effect, wherein electrons are emitted from atoms when they absorb energy
from light. Since their existence was theorized eight years previously, phenomenon had been
studied with the electron model in mind in physics laboratories worldwide. In 1915 Robert Andrews
Millikan produced experimental results in perfect accord with Einstein's predictions.

Reflection:

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so
that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the
reflection of light, sound and water waves.

Figure 2: Reflection of light form a mirror

In the figure 2, a light ray strikes a vertical mirror at a point, and light is reflected back to the same
medium. By projecting an imaginary line at incident point perpendicular to the mirror, known as the
normal, we can measure the angle of incidence, θi and the angle of reflection, θr. The law of
reflection states that θi = θr, or in other words, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.

Laws of reflection
If the reflecting surface is very smooth, the reflection of light that occurs is called regular reflection.
The laws of reflection are as follows:

1. The incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to the reflection surface at the point of the
incidence lie in the same plane.
2. The angle which the incident ray makes with the normal is equal to the angle which the
reflected ray makes to the same normal (i =r).
3. The reflected ray and the incident ray are on the opposite sides of the normal.

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Refraction:

Refraction is the change in direction of wave propagation due to a change in its transmission
medium.

The phenomenon is explained by the conservation of energy and the conservation of momentum.
Owing to the change of medium, the phase velocity of the wave is changed but its frequency
remains constant. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to
another at any angle other than 0° from the normal.

Figure 3: Refraction of light form air to water

Refraction of light at the interface between two media of different refractive indices, with .
Since the phase velocity is lower in the second medium (v2 < v1), the angle of refraction θr is less
than the angle of incidence θi; that is, the ray in the higher-index medium is closer to the normal.

Laws of refraction:
The laws of refraction are as follows:

1. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the refraction surface at the point of the
incidence lie in the same plane.
2. The reflected ray and the incident ray are on the opposite sides of the plane.
3. Snell's law, which states that, for a given pair of media and a wave with a single frequency,
the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence and angle of refraction is equivalent to
relative indices of refraction ( ) of the two media.

Again, the velocity of light is inversely proportional to the reflective index of the medium.

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If the medium 1 is air then, (refractive index of air is 1) and (velocity of light in air is
c), then form equation (2)

When light wave proceeds one medium to another, where speed is different, the wavelength
changes but not the frequency. Since,

From equation (3),

This equation gives the relationship between wavelength and refractive index of light passing
through one medium to another.

Total Internal Reflection:

Total internal reflection is the phenomenon which occurs when a propagated wave strikes a medium
boundary at an angle larger than a particular critical angle with respect to the normal to the surface.
If the refractive index is lower on the other side of the boundary and the incident angle is greater
than the critical angle, the wave cannot pass through and is entirely reflected. The critical angle is
the angle of incidence above which the total internal reflection occurs.

Figure 4: Total internal reflection

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Snell’s law:

For condition of critical angle,

The critical angle of a glass-air surface, taking 1.5 as a typical index of refraction of glass, is

( )

Curved mirror:
A curved mirror is a mirror with a curved reflecting surface. The surface may be either convex
(bulging outwards) or concave (bulging inwards). Most curved mirrors have surfaces that are
shaped like part of a sphere, but other shapes are sometimes used in optical devices.

Concave mirror:
A concave mirror, or converging mirror, has a reflecting surface that bulges inward (away from the
incident light). Concave mirrors reflect light inward to one focal point. They are used to focus light.
Unlike convex mirrors, concave mirrors show different image types depending on the distance
between the object and the mirror.

Figure 5: Concave mirror

Convex mirror:
A convex mirror, diverging mirror is a curved mirror in which the reflective surface bulges toward
the light source. Convex mirrors reflect light outwards, therefore they are not used to focus light.

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Such mirrors always form a virtual image, since the focal point (F) and the center of curvature (2F)
are both imaginary points "inside" the mirror, that cannot be reached.

Figure 6: Convex mirror

Effect on image of object's position relative to mirror focal point (concave)

Object's position (S),

Image Diagram
focal point (F)

 Virtual
(Object between  Upright
focal point and  Magnified (larger)
mirror)

 Reflected rays are parallel

and never meet, so no
image is formed.
 In the limit where S
approaches F, the image
distance
(Object at focal
approaches infinity, and the
point)
image can be either real or
virtual and either upright or
inverted depending on
whether S approaches F
from above or below.

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  Real image
(Object between
 Inverted (vertically)
focus and center of
 Magnified (larger)
curvature)

 Real image
 Inverted (vertically)
(Object at center of  Same size
curvature)  Image formed at center of
curvature

 Real image
 Inverted (vertically)
 Reduced
(diminished/smaller)
 As the distance of the
object increases, the
(Object beyond
image asymptoticallyappro
center of curvature)
aches the focal point
 In the limit where S
approaches infinity, the
image size approaches zero
as the image approaches F

Figure 7: Effect on image of object's position relative to mirror focal point (concave)

Mirror equation, magnification, and focal length:

The Gaussian mirror equation, also known as the mirror and lens equation, relates the object
distance and image distance to the focal length

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Here,
S = Distance of the object, S’ = Distance of the image
f = Focal length, R = Radius of curvature

The sign convention used here is that the focal length is positive for concave mirrors and negative
for convex ones, and and ́
are positive when the object and image are in front of the mirror,
respectively. (They are positive when the object or image is real.)

For convex mirrors, if one moves the term to the right side of the equation to solve for ́ , the result
is always a negative number, meaning that the image distance is negative the image is virtual,
located "behind" the mirror.
For concave mirrors, whether the image is virtual or real depends on how large the object distance
is compared to the focal length. If the term is larger than the term, ́ is positive and the image is
real. Otherwise, the term is negative and the image is virtual. Again, this validates the behavior
described above.
The magnification of a mirror is defined as the height of the image divided by the height of the
object:

Math Problems:

1. A parallel beam of light makes an angle 30° with the surface of a glass plate having refractive
index of 1.50.
(a) What is the angle between the refracted beam and the surface of the glass? [54.7°]
(b) What should be the angle of incidence φ with this plate for the angle of refraction φ/2?
[82.8°]
2. A ray of light is incident on a plane surface separating two transparent substances of indices
1.60 and 1.40. The angle of incidence is 30° and the ray originates in the medium of higher
index. Compute the angle of refraction. [34.8°]
3. Light strikes a glass plate at an angle of incidence of 60°, part of the beam being reflected and
part refracted. It is observed that the reflected and refracted portions make an angle of 90º with
each other. What is the index of refraction of the glass? [1.732]
4. An object 2 cm high is placed 5 cm away from a concave spherical mirror having radius of
curvature of 20 cm. Determine the position, size, orientation and nature of the image. [10 cm
behind the mirror, 4 cm, erect, virtual]

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Reflection:
http://gbhsweb.glenbrook225.org/gbs/science/phys/mmedia/optics/lr.html

Refraction:
https://giphy.com/gifs/water-refraction-incident-7laUs5DW6kBQk

Mirror:
http://ryannstyles.blogspot.com/2015/05/types-of-mirrors.html
http://freenotesportal.blogspot.com/2017/04/physics-for-ssc-cgl-part-3.html

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