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Law of Reflection

GENERAL PHYSICS 2/ Grade 12

Quarter 4/ Week 2/ Part II
 Pre - Test

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 Definitions
• Luminous objects – generate their own
light (the sun)

• Illuminated objects – reflect light (the

moon)

• Line of Sight – a line from an object or

image to your eyes (light from the object
travels along this line to your eyes)
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 Line of Sight
• Both luminous &
illuminated objects
emit/reflect light in
many directions.
• Your eye sees only
the very small
diverging cone of rays
that is coming toward
it.

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 Rays of Light
• Incident Ray – leaves
the object and strikes
the mirror

• Reflected Ray – leaves

mirror and strikes your
eye

• The reflected ray is on

the line of sight from
the image to your eye.
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 Law of Reflection

• Angle of incidence equals angle

of reflection.

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 Law of Reflection
• Normal – line
perpendicular to the
mirror surface

• Angle of incidence –
angle between
incident ray and
normal

• Angle of reflection –
angle between
reflected ray and
normal
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 Law of Reflection Animation

θi = θr

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 Diffuse Reflection

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 Diffuse Reflection

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 Wet Road Glare

• Driving at night on a wet roadway results in

an annoying glare from oncoming
headlights.
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 Observing an Image
• An image is a position in
space from which all
reflected light appears
to diverge.

• Image formed by a plane

mirror is called a virtual
image.

• Virtual images are

formed in regions where
there is actually no light
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 Image Location

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Image Formed By Plane Mirror

• Image is virtual.

• Image is located
as far behind the
mirror as the
object is in front
of the mirror.

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How Big Must the Mirror Be?

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 Law of Reflection
Curved Mirrors

• Angle of Incidence is
equal to the angle of
reflection
Types of Curved Mirrors
• A concave mirror is
silvered on the inside of
the sphere.
• A concave mirror is also
called a converging mirror
because it converges
parallel light.
• A convex mirror is
silvered on the outside of
the bowl.
• A convex mirror is also
called a diverging mirror
because it diverges
parallel light.
 Snell’s Law
When light travels from one medium to another the speed
changes v=c/n, but the frequency is constant. So the light
bends:

n1 sin(θι)= n2 sin(θr)

n1
θι

θr n2
 Total Internal Reflection
Recall Snell’s Law: n1 sin(θi)= n2 sin(θr)
(n1 > n2 ⇒ θr > θi )

θi = sin-1(n2/n1) then θr = 90
“critical angle” θr
Light incident at a larger angle will n2
only have reflection (θi = θr)
θr n1
θi
For water/air: θc
n1=1.33, n2=1 normal
θι
θi = sin-1(n2/n1)
= 48.60
 Two Conditions for
Total Internal Reflection
TIR only takes place when both of the
following two conditions are met:
1. The light is in the denser medium and
approaching the less dense medium.
2. The angle of incidence is greater than the
so-called critical angle.
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 Fiber Optics
At each contact w/ the glass air interface, if the light hits at
greater than the critical angle, it undergoes total internal reflection
and stays in the fiber.

noutside

ninside
Telecommunications
Total Internal Reflection only
Endoscopes
works if noutside < ninside
Laser surgery
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 Experiment

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 Thank You!!!

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