RAY OPTICS

1. Light is a part of electromagnetic spectrum with wavelength of about 450-700 nm that

causes sensation of vision.
2. Light travels with a speed of about 3 x 108 m/s. In real life, the size of objects that we
observe is larger than wavelength of light, so light can be taken to travel in straight lines.
3. Reflection – is the phenomenon by which incident light travelling from one medium to
another medium bounces back to the initial medium.
4. Laws of reflection –
(i) The angle of incidence is equal to angle of reflection.
(ii) The incident ray, reflected ray and the normal to the reflecting surface at the point of
incidence lie in the same plane.
5. Sign convention – (Cartesian sign
convention)
(i) All distances are measured from
the pole or optical centre of the
mirror or lens.
(ii) Light generally travels from left to
right.
6. Paraxial rays – rays that are incident
close to the pole and make small
angle with the principal axis.
7. Focus – a point where the incident
rays meet or appear to meet after
reflection in concave and convex
mirror respectively is called focus.
8. Focal plane - a plane that is perpendicular to the axis of a lens or mirror and passes through
the focus.
9. Image – when the light rays after reflection actually converge or appear to diverge at a point,
image is formed at that point. In case of concave mirror and convex mirror the image formed
is real and virtual respectively.
10. To find the image, choose any two rays and trace their paths –
(i) The ray from the point which is parallel to the principal axis goes through the focus of
the mirror.
(ii) The ray passing through the centre of curvature of a concave mirror or appearing to pass
through it for a convex mirror simply retraces the path.
(iii) The ray passing through the focus of the concave mirror or appearing to pass through
the focus of a convex mirror emerges parallel to the principal axis.
(iv) The ray incident at any angle at the pole. The reflected ray follows laws of reflection.
11. Mirror equation –
12. Magnification – magnification is defined as the ratio of size of image to that of object.
 ¿ image
magnⅈfⅈcation = =−v /u
¿ object
13. Refraction – the phenomenon by which light travelling from one optical medium to another
optical medium changes its direction in the other optical medium is called refraction.
14. Laws of refraction –
(i) The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the interface at the point of
incidence, all lie in the same plane.
(ii) The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction is
sin ⅈ
constant. =μ21
sin r
15. Characteristics of refraction –
(i) When light travels from optically denser to rarer medium, it bends away from the
normal. (i < r) the refractive index is more for first medium.
(ii) When light travels from optically rarer to denser medium, it bends towards the normal.
(i > r) the refractive index is less for the fist medium.
16. Optical density - Optical density is the ratio of the speed of light in two media. For example,
mass density of turpentine is less than that of water but its optical density is higher.
17. Refractive index - The ratio between the speed of light in medium to speed in a vacuum is
the refractive index.
- The refractive index of any medium with respect to another medium which is not vacuum is
called relative refractive index.
1
- n21= .
n12
- It also follows that if n32 is the refractive index
of medium 3 with respect to medium 2 then
n32 = n31 × n12,
18. Refraction through a glass slab – For a
rectangular slab, refraction takes place at two
interfaces (air-glass and glass-air). It is easily
seen from that r2 = i1, i.e., the emergent ray is
parallel to the incident ray—there is no
deviation, but it does suffer lateral
displacement/shift with respect to the

incident ray.

19. Total internal reflection -