REFRACTION

OF LIGHT
INDEX OF REFRACTION
APPLICATION OF
REFRACTION
 Refraction of light
 Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters
a medium where its speed is different.
 The amount of bending depends on the indices of
refraction of the two media and is described
quantitatively by Snell's Law
The refraction of light when it passes from a fast medium to a
slow medium bends the light ray toward the normal to the
boundary between the two media.
../Downloads/bending-light_en.html
 As the speed of light is reduced in the slower
medium, the wavelength is shortened
proportionately.
 The frequency is unchanged; it is a characteristic
of the source of the light and unaffected by
medium changes.
Why does light bend when it enters
the water?
 The light bends away the normal line.
If light travels enters into a substance with a lower
refractive index (such as from water into air) it
speeds up.
 The light bends towards from the normal line. A
higher refractive index shows that light will slow
down and change direction more as it enters the
substance.
 Index of Refraction
 Theindex of refraction is defined as the speed of light in
vacuum divided by the speed of light in the medium.
Index of refraction of Material
Media Index of Refraction
Vacuum 1.00
Air 1.0003
CO2 1.0005
Water 1.33
Alcohol 1.36
Pyrex glass 1.47
Plexiglass 1.49
Table Salt 1.51
Flint Glass 1.61
Sapphire 1.794
Diamond 2.42
Ruby 1.779
 Snells Law
 Snell'sLaw relates the indices of refraction n of the two
media to the directions of propagation in terms of the
angles to the normal.
APPLICATION OF REFRACTION
LIGHT
Totalinternal Reflection
Rainbow
Mirage
Apparent depth
Lenses
 Total Internal Reflection
• is the reflection of the total amount of
incident light at the boundary between two
media
• When light traveling in an optically dense
medium hits a boundary at a steep angle
(larger than the critical angle for the
boundary), the light is
completely reflected. 
Critical Angle
 The angle of incidence beyond which rays of light
passing through a denser medium to the surface of
a less dense medium are no longer refracted but
totally reflected.
 Rainbow
Rainbows happen when sunlight and rain
combine in a very specific way.
The beams of sunlight separate into the colors
we see in the rainbow as they enter a raindrop.
Sunlight is actually made up of different colors
that we don't usually see.
When a beam of sunlight comes down to Earth,
the light is white.
 Rainbow
 A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is
caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of
light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of
light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a
multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight
always appear in the section of sky directly
opposite the sun.
Why the sky is blue?
A clear cloudless day-time sky is blue because
molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun
more than they scatter red light. When we look
towards the sun at sunset, we see red and orange
colours because the blue light has been scattered
out and away from the line of sight.
Why the sky is blue?
.
 Mirages
• is an optical phenomenon that creates the illusion
of water and results from the refraction of light
through a non-uniform medium.
• an optical illusion caused by atmospheric
conditions, especially the appearance of a sheet of
water in a desert or on a hot road caused by the
refraction of light from the sky by heated air.
• Mirages are most commonly observed on sunny
days when driving down a roadway.
Apparent Depth-Real and apparent depth. The refraction of light at
the surface of water makes ponds and swimming pools appear
shallower than they really are. A 1m deep pond would only appear to
be 0.75 m deep when viewed from directly above. When light
emerges from glass or water into air it speeds up again.

R – Real Depth
Dispersion is the separation of white
light into several colors.
Lenses
 A lens is a transmissive optical device that focuses
or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A
simple lens consists of a single piece of
transparent material, while a
compound lens consists of several
simple lenses (elements), usually arranged along a
common axis.
 It is use in camera, microscope, telescope,
binoculars, light