Reflection
Law of reflection: θi = θr
Refraction
What happens to the waves as they pass into the glass and continue to
travel through the glass? The speed of light in glass or water is less
than the speed of light in a vacuum or air. The speed of light in a given
substance is v = c/n, where n is the index of refraction of the
substance. Typical values for the index of refraction of glass are
between 1.5 and 1.6, so the speed of light in glass is approximately
two-thirds the speed of light in air. The distance between wave fronts
will therefore be shorter in the glass than in air, since the waves travel
a smaller distance per period T.
If f is the frequency of the wave and T = 1/f is the period, i.e. the time
interval between successive crests passing a fixed point in space, then
λ1 = v1T = cT/n1 and λ2 = v2T = cT/n2, or λ1/λ2 = n2/n1.
Now consider wave fronts and their corresponding light rays
approaching the surface at an angle.
We can see that the rays will bend as the wave passes from air to
glass. The bending occurs because the wave fronts do not travel as far
in one cycle in the glass as they do in air. As the diagram shows, the
wave front halfway into the glass travels a smaller distance in glass
than it does in air, causing it to bend in the middle. Thus, the ray,
which is perpendicular to the wave front, also bends. The situation is
like a marching band marching onto a muddy field at an angle to the
edge of the field. The rows bend as the speed of the marchers is
reduced by the mud. The amount of bending depends on the angle of
incidence and on the indices of refraction of glass and air, which
determine the change in speed. From the figure we can see that
λ1/λ2 = sinθ1/sinθ2. But λ1/λ2 = n2/n1. Therefore n2/n1 = sinθ1/sinθ2, or
n1sinθ1 = n2sinθ2.
2. Explain the Snell law, the critical angle and practical applications
where it could be used.
Like with reflection, refraction also involves the angles that the incident
ray and the refracted ray make with the normal to the surface at the
point of refraction. Unlike reflection, refraction also depends on the
media through which the light rays are travelling. This dependence is
made explicit in Snell's Law via refractive indices, numbers which are
constant for given media.
Critical angle: the critical angle is defined as the angle of incidence
that provides an angle of refraction of 90°. Make particular note that the
critical angle is an angle of incidence value. For the water-air boundary,
the critical angle is 48.6°. For the crown glass-water boundary, the
critical angle is 61.0°. The actual value of the critical angle is dependent
upon the combination of materials present on each side of the boundary.
3. Explain the physics behind lenses for optical diseases.
𝑛𝐷 = 𝑐/𝑣
The refractive index can provide information for us about the behavior of
light. When light passes through the different substances its velocity
decreases by increasing of the refractive index of these substances. It
can be due to interaction between molecules of components in substrate
and effect of these interactions on light. Also in the most substrates, the
refractive index decreases by increasing of the temperature. The
interaction between molecules decreases as the temperature increases.
When a beam of light impinges with the Brewster angle, the component
of the polarization parallel to the plane of incidence is canceled out in
the reflected one. For this reason, the beam we see reflected has a
linear polarization just in the direction perpendicular to the plane of
incidence, regardless of th type of polarization of the incident beam. It
should be noted that, in the particular case of incising with a linearly
polarized beam in the direction parallel to the plane incidence, the
reflected one is canceled at the Brewster angle. In this case, a total
transmission of the beam between both means is produced.