REFRACTION, DISPERSION AND COLOUR.

………………
REFRACTION OF LIGHT ………………
 Is the bending of light ray as it passes from one medium to another of different
optical densities.
 Is the change in direction of a ray of light as it pass from one medium to another of
different optical densities.
Note:
 Refraction occurs because light energy travels at different speeds in different
transparent media.
 The speed of light is much greater in a less dense medium as compared its
speed in a denser medium.
 When a ray of light travels from a dense medium to a less dense medium, it bends
away from the normal.
 When a ray of light travels from a less dense medium to a more dense medium, it
bends towards the normal.

Terms Used In Refraction Of Light.

N N
A B

Less dense Less dense

i medium r medium
O
O More dense O More dense
r medium i medium

BB A

 Incident ray, AO. This is the path along which light travels in the first medium
before it changes direction
 Refracted ray, OB. This is the path along which light travels in the second medium
after it has changed its direction.
 Angle of incidence, i. Is the angle between the incident ray and the normal at the
point of incidence.
 Angle of refraction, r .Is the angle between the refracted ray and the normal at the
point of incidence.
 Normal, ON. Is a perpendicular line to the given medium.
Refraction of light at different materials
Activity.
Sketch a ray diagram to show refraction of light from a ray box onto;

a(i). Rectangular glass

block

(ii). Explain why the rays appear as in your sketch.

Explanation.
 Light energy reduces speed as it travels from a less dense medium to a dense
medium. Since air is less dense as compared to glass, the light ray will bend
towards the normal after refraction at the air glass interface.
 When light rays are moving away from glass to air, light energy increases
speed and the ray bends away from the normal.

Prism

b) c).

Explanation

 The ray of light coming from air through the curved surface enters the glass
block through the radii of the semicircular face. These radii are normals to
this surface and therefore will not be refracted as it enters the glass because
the angle of incidence equals to the angle of refraction. As the emerges out of
the glass at the plane surface to air, its speed increases and therefore will bend
away from the normal
Apparent Bending And Apparent Displacement.
Question one.
a. State what is observed when a pencil is partly immersed in a glass beaker half
filled with water.
………………
 The pencil appears to be bent ………………

b. Explain your observations in a above.

 The apparent bending of the pencil is due to refraction of light as it passes
from water to air. The rays from the bottom of the pencil in water bend away
from the normal as they enter air. And if produced backwards they meet at a
point forming a virtual image and now the pencil appears bent.
c. Draw a labeled diagram to illustrate your explanation in b above

Question 2

a. Explain why a swimming pool filled with water may appear to be shallower than
it actually is.
 When rays coming from the bottom of the swimming pool reach the interface
of water and air, they bend away from the normal at a point of incidence
causing an impression of a shallower pool as shown bellow.
b. Draw a well labeled diagram to illustrate your answer

Question Three
Explain why the stars appear to be displaced from their position

 The layers
of air near
the earth`s
surface are
cooler at
night than the layers high above the earth`s surface. Therefore the
optical density of air near the surface is higher than the optical density
of air above the surface hence light from the star bends towards the
normal as it moves towards the earth. On entering the eye, the light
appears to be coming from a point along the direction light enters his
eye thus the star appears higher than its actual position.
This is a reason why the sun is seen on the horizon after the sunset and before
sunrise.

TASK
Use your knowledge of refraction to explain;

1. Explain using relevant diagram why a fish at the bottom of a pond appears nearer
to the surface of the pond.

2. Explain why water on the windscreen of a car needs to wiped when driving.

 Water on wind screen of cars slows down the speed of light and
therefore light coming from front objects will appear blurred and not
clear due to refractions of both water and the wind screen and this can
cause accidents
3. Explain why sunlight is seen before the sun emerges over the horizon.
4. Identify the dangers associated with these occurrences

………………
The laws of refraction of light. ………………

The first Law

The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal at the point of incidence all lie in the
same plane.

The second Law

The ratio of the sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction is constant for
a given pair of media.

The second law of refraction of light is also referred to as the Snell`s law and the
constant is the refractive index in which refraction occurs.
∩1 sin i=∩2 sinr

For example the refractive index of a glass with respect to that of air is given by;
sine of angle of incidence∈air
a ∩ g=
sine of angle of refraction∈ glass

Sketch
Question

a. State the relationship between the speed of light in a medium to the refractive
index of that medium
speed of light ∈first medium
Refractive index of a second medium=
speed of light ∈ secon medium

b. Define the term refractive index.

 Refractive index is the ratio of sine of angle of incidence to sine of angle
of refraction for a ray of light moving from one medium to another.
c. Identify the applications of refractive index.
 Determination of drug concentration in pharmaceutical industry.
 In calculating the focusing power of eye and camera lenses.
 Calculating the dispersive power of prisms.
 Applied in design of diamond

Examples (longhorn 35, Fountain 4)

TASK

Self Check longhorn 35

Total internal reflection

Question one. (Longhorn 37)
a. What happens to a ray of light incident at a small angle from a dense medium to a
less dense medium?
 The ray of light will be partially refracted and partially reflected.
Refracted ray in a less
dense medium

Incident ray from a

dense medium
Reflected ray in a dense
medium
b. State what happens to the refracted ray as the angle of incidence in a dense
medium is increased.
 The angle of refraction also increases

Question two. Fountain 41

c. What is meant by critical angle?

Is the angle of incidence in a denser medium for which the angle of

refraction in a less dense medium is 90 0

d. State the conditions for critical angle to be obtained.

 The ray of light should be moving from a denser medium to a less
dense medium.
 The angle of refraction in a less dense medium should be 90 0
e. State and sketch what happens at critical angle.
 The refracted ray grazes the boundary between the pair of media.

The relationship between refractive index∩ and critical angle c

Examples: Longhorn 38, 2 O, Level Physics 183.
………………
Question one. ………………
 a. State what is observed when the angle of incidence in a denser medium is
greater than the critical angle, hence sketch a ray diagram to illustrate your
observation.
 The ray will be reflected back into the denser medium.

b. What is meant by total internal reflection?

 Is a reflection of light moving from a dense medium to a less dense medium
back to a dense medium.
c. State the conditions necessary for total internal reflection.
 The angle of incidence must be greater than the critical angle.
 Light must be moving from a denser medium to a less dense medium.

Question Four.

a. Identify the effects of total internal reflection

 Formation of mirage. A pool of water is often seen a head on road during hot
day.
When light passes from cold air to hot air, it bends away from the normal and
undergoes total internal reflection causing an illusion to the observer that it is
coming from the ground.
 A cat`s eye glow I the dark when small light falls onto them. This is due to
multiple reflections of light within the cat`s eye.
 Diamond shines brilliant because it is designed in such a way that the light it
receives from air undergoes multiple total internal reflections.
 A fish in water is able to enjoy 1800 field of view.

Applications Of Total Internal Reflection.

 In designing of car head lamps.
 In the design of reflectors on the back of bicycles.
  In the design of diamond.

Explain the application of total internal reflection in;

a. Optical fibres.
An optical fibre is a thin, transparent material, usually made of glass or plastic,
for transmitting light. If light is incident on a cable end with an angle of
incidence greater than the critical angle, then the light will remain trapped inside
the glass as it undergoes multiple reflections inside the glass. In this way, light
travels very quickly down the length of the cable over a very long distance.

b. Prism periscopes.
It is a combined telescope and periscope. Light enters the sides of the prisms
normally and falls on the hypotenuse side internally at angle of incidence of 450.
Total internal reflection occurs since the angle incidence is greater than the critical
angle of glass of about 420.

c. Prism Binoculars.
A prism binocular is a simple telescope. If light is incident perpendicular to the
hypotenuse face of the prism it undergoes two internal reflections and emerges out
parallel to its original direction which finally gives an upright image.

d. In a projector using erecting prism.

In order to obtain the image on the screen, an erecting right angled prism is placed
in front of the projection lens. Light enters the face of the prism approximately
parallel to the base and total internal reflection occurs at the base. The ray is
incident normally on the prism so that total internal reflection occurs and the ray is
turned through 900.
Advantages of prisms over plane mirrors.
 The images are clear and bright unlike in plane mirrors where the image
fades.
 Prisms can produce several reflections of a ray.
 Prisms can easily be fastened and built into instruments.
 The reflecting surface in prism is not subjected to wear.
 For prisms the angle between the reflecting surfaces is fixed.

TASK

Self Check longhorn 39

DISPERSION OF LIGHT
Question one.

White light is incident on one slanting face of a triangular glass prism and observed
from the screen on the other side.

a. What happens to white light after passing through the prism?

 Light is split into seven different colors i.e. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue,
Indigo and Violet.
b. Use an illustration to show the path followed by white light through the prism.

Question two.
a. Define the term dispersion of light.
 Is the splitting of white light into its seven different components.
b. Explain the cause of dispersion of light.
 Dispersion occurs because glass has different refractive indices for different
colors of white light and so each color is refracted differently by the glass
prism.
c. State the least and most refracted visible color.
 Red is the least refracted and indigo is the most refracted

Note:

The white light that comes from the Sun is called the visible light.
The different components/colours of the visible energy is known as the spectrum of white
light and each component appears as a distinct colour.

Applications of dispersion of light.

Question one.

a. Explain the formation of a rainbow.

 When sunlight enters the tiny water droplets of rain or fog present in the
atmosphere, it gets dispersed as these water droplets act as small prisms
that refract white light as it enters and leaves the droplets and so light now
is split into different colors forming rain bow on the opposite side of the
sun.

sketch
b. Explain why the sky appears blue on a clear day.
 Air molecules in the sky atmospheres scatter the different components of
white light differently and blue light is scattered most making the sky
appear blue.

TASK

1. Barouque PG 45
2. Explain why colored bands are formed when oil slicks form on puddles of water on
road.

COLOURS.
We are able to see an object because of the light that object reflects back into our eyes.
Types Of Colours
ACTIVITY PG 45 FOUNTAIN

Primary Colours.

Primary colours are ones that cannot be obtained by mixing two different colours of light.
Primary colours are Red, Blue and Green.

Secondary Colours.

These are colours that are obtained by mixing two different primary colours together.
Secondary colours are Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.

If a Primary colour is added to a Secondary colour they produce white light and the added
colours are called complementary colours. The complementary colours are Red-Cyan,
Blue-Yellow and Green-Magenta

Colour filters
Is a material that absorbs all other colours and allow only its own colour component
to go through.

Explain why most plants appear green.

It is because the chlorophyll in plants absorbs most of the colours and reflect only
green.