Gems Academia international school

Name Ayush Dasgupta

Class 8 Section B
REFRACTION OF LIGHT
 CONCEPT OF REFRACTION

When light travel from one

transparent medium to
another transparent medium,
it bends from its original path
this phenomenon of bending
of light is called refraction.
 REFRACTION OF LIGHT
(a) From less dense TO denser medium: (b) From denser TO less dense medium:
incident ray
incident ray i
AIR (RARER) normal

WATER (DENSER)
i
WATER (DENSER)
r orig
in
normal of l al path AIR (RARER)
ight r refracted ray
r ay

ori ligh
gin t r a
of
refracted ray

al p y
at h
 i will be greater than  r
 r will be greater than  i

 When a ray of light enters a denser medium, it bends TOWARDS the normal.
 When a ray of light enters a less dense medium, it bends AWAY from the
normal.
 TERM RELATED TO REFRACTION
Incident Ray : The ray which falls on the
OF
boundary of separation to enter intoLIGHT
the other medium is known as the
incident ray.
Refracted Ray : The ray in the second
medium after deviation is known as
the refracted ray. In fig. OB and
QD are the refracted rays.
Normal : A perpendicular passing
through the point at the boundary of
separation, where the incident ray
falls, is known as the normal. In Fig ,
MN and PR are the normal.
Angle of Incidence : The angle between
the incident ray and the normal is known
as the angle of incidence. It is generally
represented by i. In Fig. angles AOM
and CQR are the angles of incidence
Angle of Refraction : The angle between the refracted
ray and the normal is known as the ray and the normal is known as the angle of refraction.
It is generally represented by r. In Fig. angles BON and PQD are the angles of refraction.
EFFECTS OF REFRACTION

Apparent
depth

An object seen in the water will usually appear to be at a different

depth than it actually is, this is due to the refraction of light rays
as they travel from the water into the air.
The first diagram shows that the observer ‘perceives’ that the
chest appear to be closer to the surface than it really is.
 EFFECTS OF REFRACTION

eye sees the

In the diagram, refraction virtual image of
causes point A to appear the stick
shallower than it
nearer to the surface at B. So actually is

to the eyes, the straw

appears to bend towards the
surface of the water.
 = Constant µ

Note : The second law is also known as Snell’s Law.

Here the constant µ is known as the refractive index of the second medium with respect to the first medium.
Example : if a ray of light travels from air to water, then the constant = is refractive index of water with respect to air.
 REFLECTION FROM A PLANE MIRROR

The angle of incidence is the angle between the

incident ray and the surface normal (an imaginary line
perpendicular to the surface). Therefore the angle of
reflection is the angle between the reflected ray and
the normal and a collimated beam of light does not
spread out after reflection from a plane mirror, except
for diffraction effects.
 DISPERSION
• The index of refraction of a medium depends in
a slightly manner on the frequency of the light-
beam
• Different color rays deflect in different manner
during refraction: violet light is deflected more
than red…..
• By refraction we can decompose the white color
in its constituents--> A prism separates white
light into the colors of the rainbow: ROYGBIV
• We can do the opposite effect
too…..recombining the rainbow colors in white
light
• Atmospheric dispersion of light: rainbow
(dispersion on tinny water drops) or halos
(dispersion on tiny ice crystals)
 DISPERSION OF LIGHT THROUGH A PRISM

Dispersion is the separation of white light into its various spectral components. The
colors are refracted at different angles due to the different indexes of refraction.
 RAINBOWS
• White light separates into different colors (wavelengths) on entering the
raindrop because red light is refracted by a lesser angle than blue light. On
leaving the raindrop, the red rays have turned through a smaller angle than
the blue rays, producing a rainbow.
 NEWTON’S COLOUR DISC

Newton demonstrated by his colour disc, the

Recombination of seven colour to produce white
light.

All the seven colours violet, indigo, blue, green,

yellow, Orange and red.

The disc is appeared white when it was rotated at

a high speed. Newton thus proved that white
light consist of seven colour.