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Refraction of Light at Plane Surfaces Notes
Refraction of Light at Plane Surfaces Notes
Cause of Refraction :
When a Ray of light passes from one medium to another medium its direction changes because of the
change in speed of light in going from one medium to another.
Laws of refraction :
i) the incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane
ii) Snell's law : The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is
constant for a pair of given media
The constant is called the refractive index of the second medium with respect to the first medium.
Refractive index :
Refractive index of one medium with respect to another medium is defined as the ratio of speed of light in
the first medium to that in second medium.
ii) temperature of the medium : refractive index of a medium is inversely proportional to its temperature.
iii) colour (wavelength) of the light : refractive index of a medium is inversely proportional to its
wavelength.
Lateral displacement
The emergent ray does not undergo any angular shift with respect to the incident ray but it gets shifted
laterally as shown in the figure.
Factors on which Lateral displacement depends :
i ) it is directly proportional to the thickness of the block
iii) it is directly proportional to refractive index of the slab. so lateral displacement is more in case of violet
light then for red light.
Prism
A Prism is a transparent medium bounded by five plane surfaces with a triangular cross section.
When angle of Incidence is low initially angle of deviation is high then as angle of incidence increases then
angle of deviation becomes minimum and then again with increase in angle of incidence angle of deviation
increases.
ii) the angle of incidence must be greater than the critical angle for the pair of media