INDEX

Page no.

1. Theory of Total Internal

Reflection. 1-3

2. Applications of T.I.R.
Sparkling of Diamond
Mirage and Looming
Totally reflecting prisms 4-10
Optical fibres
3. Bibliography 11
Theory of Total internal reflection
When light is incident upon a medium of lesser
refractive index , the ray will bend away from
the normal, so the exit angle will be greater than
the incident angle . The exit angle will approach
90 degrees for a particular angle of incidence ,
called Critical angle (c). For incident angles more
than the critical angle , light will be reflected
back to the incident medium itself. Such a
phenomenon is called Total internal reflection.

1
The critical angle can be calculated from the
snells law by setting the refraction to 90 degrees
n1*sin c= n2*sin 90
c=sin n2/n1
Here n1 and n2 are the refractive indices of
medium 1 and 2 respectively.
Total internal reflection takes place only when the
following conditions are met:
the light is incident to a less dense medium from
a denser medium.
the angle of incidence is greater than the critical
angle.

3
 Applications of T.I.R.
1. Sparkling of diamond
2. Mirage and Looming
3. Totally reflecting prisms
4. Optical fibres

4
 1. Sparkling of diamond
Sparkling is due to :
1.Cut of diamond faces.
2.High index of refraction , which means a
very small critical angle(n=2.42,c=24.4)
incident rays can undergo multiple TIR
inside a diamond before exiting the top
of the diamond.

5
Propagation of light through an optical fibre

when light is incident on one end of the fibre at a

small angle , it goes inside and suffers repeated total
inter reflections because the angle of incidence is
greater than the critical angle of the fibre material
with respect to its outer covering . As there is no loss
of intensity in total internal reflection , the
outcoming beam is of as much intensity as the
incident beam. Even if the wire is bent , light easily
travels through along the fibre.

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 Bibliography
How stuff works
NCERT textbooks
Wikipedia
S.L. Arora
YouTube

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