Chapter 1 : Introduction

Refraction is the bending of a wave when it enters a medium where its speed is
different. The refraction of light when it passes from a fast medium to a slow medium
bends the light ray toward the normal to the boundary between the two media. The
amount of bending depends on the indices of refraction of the two media and is
described quantitatively by Snell's Law. Refraction is responsible for image formation
by lenses and the eye. The bending of refraction can be visualized in terms of Huygen’s
principle. As the speed of light is reduced in the slower medium, the wavelength is
shortened proportionately. The frequency is unchanged; it is a characteristic of the
source of the light and unaffected by medium changes.

1.1 History of refraction

The actual law of refraction was discovered in the early 1600s by a Dutch
mathematician and geodesist, Willebrord Snel van Royen. (Because his name in Latin
is “Snellius”, the law is often called “Snell's law” instead of “Snel's law”. )

Snel found that there is a fixed ratio of two lengths in diagrams like those above. Let
a ray of sunlight SR be incident on a rectangular tank of water, as shown below, where
it is refracted at R. Extend the incident ray to A, on the vertical wall of the tank. Then
the length of the actual refracted ray RC bears a fixed ratio to the extrapolated length
RA, regardless of the angle of incidence.

Figure 1 : Refraction of Light from Air to Water

This ratio, RC/RA, is called the index of refraction, and denoted by the letter n. It is a
property of the two media on either side of the refracting surface. For water and air, the
4 3
ratio is very nearly ; for glass and air, it is close to . (It's just a coincidence that the
3 2
refractive indices of these common materials are so close to simple ratios; but it makes
them easy to remember.)
 It is convenient to assign every material an absolute value of the index of refraction,
instead of dealing with a “relative index” that depends on the second material (air, in
these examples). If we assign an absolute index of unity to vacuum, the index for air
turns out to be nearly 1.0003 under ordinary conditions; then the absolute indices for
most materials are very close to their relative indices, measured against air. So the
index of refraction of water is about 1.33, and that of glass is about 1.5.

1.2 Coefficient of refraction of light

Index of Refraction

The index of refraction is defined as the speed of light in vacuum divided by the
speed of light in the medium.

Figure 2 : Formula for index of refraction

The indices of refraction of some common substances are given below with a more
complete description of the indices for optical glasses given elsewhere. The values
given are approximate and do not account for the small variation of index with light
wavelength which is called dispersion.
Material n Material n
Vacuum 1.000 Ethyl alcohol 1.362
Air 1.000277 Glycerine 1.473
Water 4/3 Ice 1.31
Carbon disulfide 1.63 Polystyrene 1.59
Methylene iodide 1.74 Crown glass 1.50-1.62
Diamond 2.417 Flint glass 1.57-1.75
Table 1 : Refractive index for different materials

Application of Snell’s Law

Snell's Law relates the indices of refraction n of the two media to the directions of
propagation in terms of the angles to the normal. Snell's law can be derived
from Fermat'sPrinciple or from the Fresnel Equations.

Figure 3 : Formula of Snell's Law

1.4 Objective

The first objective of this experiment is to investigate the relationship between the
angle of incidence and the angle of refraction in the medium of glass. The second
objective of this experiment is to determine the refractive index of the glass.
Chapter 2:Literature Review and Introduction

2.1 Introduction

When electromagnetic radiation, in the form of visible light, travels from one
substance or medium into another, the light waves may undergo a phenomenon known
as refraction, which is manifested by a bending or change in direction of the light.
Refraction occurs as light passes from one medium to another only when there is a
difference in the index of refraction between the two materials. The effects of
refraction are responsible for a variety of familiar phenomena, such as the apparent
bending of an object that is partially submerged in water and the mirages observed on a
hot, sandy desert. The refraction of visible light is also an important characteristic of
lenses that enables them to focus a beam of light onto a single point.

Figure 4 : Lacemaker's Refracting Condensers

Early nineteenth century lacemakers relied on water-filled glass spheres to focus or

condense candlelight onto small areas of their work in order to help them see fine
details more clearly. Figure 1 illustrates a lacemaker's condenser made in the 1800s,
which consists of several glass spheres arranged in a circle around a candle stand,
enabling light from the candle to be focused or concentrated into several bright spots.
The curved surface of the glass sphere functions as a large collecting surface for the
light rays, which are then refracted toward a common focal point in a manner similar to
that of a convex lens. Condensing or collecting lenses are also utilized in modern
microscopes and other optical instruments to concentrate light, relying on the same
principles of refraction as did the early lacemaker's condenser.

As light passes from one substance into another, it will travel straight through with
no change of direction when crossing the boundary between the two substances
head-on (perpendicular, or a 90-degree angle of incidence). However, if the light
impacts the boundary at any other angle it will be bent or refracted, with the degree of
refraction increasing as the beam is progressively inclined at a greater angle with
respect to the boundary. As an example, a beam of light striking water vertically will
not be refracted, but if the beam enters the water at a slight angle it will be refracted to a
very small degree. If the angle of the beam is increased even farther, the light will
refract with increasing proportion to the entry angle. Early scientists realized that the
ratio between the angle at which light crosses the media interface and the angle
produced after refraction is a very precise characteristic of the material producing the
refraction effect.

For centuries, man had noticed a rather odd, but obvious fact. When a straight pole or
stick is partially submerged in water, the pole no longer appears straight, but slants off
at a different angle or direction (see Figure 2 for an illustration of this effect with a soda
straw in a glass of water). Light is refracted when it leaves water, giving rise to the
illusion that objects in water appear to be both distorted and closer than they really are.
The straw in Figure 2 appears magnified and slightly distorted due to refraction of
reflected light waves from the surface of the straw. The waves must first pass through
the water, then through the glass/water boundary and finally through the air. Light
waves coming from the sides (front and back) of the straw are shifted to a greater
degree than those coming from the center of the straw, making it appear larger than it
really is.

As early as the first century (A.D.), the ancient Greek astronomer and geographer
Ptolemy attempted to mathematically explain the amount of bending (or refraction) that
occurred, but his proposed law was later determined to be unreliable. During the 1600s,
the Dutch mathematician Willebrord Snell succeeded in developing a law that defined a
value related to the ratio of the incident and refracted angles, which has subsequently
been termed the bending power or refractive index of a substance. In effect, the more
a substance is able to bend or refract light, the larger its refractive index value is said to
be. The stick in water appears to be bent because light rays reflected from the stick are
abruptly bent at the air-water interface before reaching our eyes. To his disappointment,
Snell never discovered the reason for this refraction effect.

Figure 5 : Light refraction by Glass of Water

In 1678, another Dutch scientist, Christiaan Huygens devised a mathematical

relationship to explain Snell's observations and proposed that the refractive index of a
material is related to the speed at which light travels through the substance. Huygens
determined that the ratio relating the angles of light paths in two materials having
differing refractive indices should be equal to the ratio of the velocity that light travels
when passing through each material. Thus, he postulated, light would travel more
slowly through materials having a greater refractive index. Stated another way, the
velocity of light through a material is inversely proportional to its refractive index.
Although this point has since been verified experimentally, it was not immediately
obvious to a majority of seventeenth and eighteenth century investigators who lacked a
reliable means to measure the velocity of light. To these scientists, light appeared to
travel at the same speed, regardless of the material through which it passed. It was over
150 years after Huygens passed away that the speed of light was measured with enough
accuracy to prove his theories correct.

Expanding on the previous ideas, the refractive index of a transparent substance or

material is defined as the relative speed at which light moves through the material with
respect to its speed in a vacuum. By convention, the refractive index of a vacuum is
defined as having a value of 1.0, which serves as a universally accepted reference point.
The index of refraction of other transparent materials, commonly identified by the
variable n, is defined through the equation:
c
n (Refractive Index) =
v

where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, and v is the velocity of light in the material.
Because the refractive index of a vacuum is defined as 1.0, and light attains its
maximum speed in a vacuum (which is devoid of any material), the refractive index of
all other transparent materials exceeds the value of 1.0, and can be measured by a
number of techniques. For most practical purposes, the refractive index of air (1.0003)
is so close to that of a vacuum that it can be employed to calculate refractive indices of
unknown materials. The measured refractive indices of several common transparent
materials are presented in Table 1. Materials with higher refractive indices slow the
speed of light to a greater degree than those with lower refractive indices. In effect,
these materials are said to be more refractive, and they exhibit a larger angle of
refraction for incoming light rays passing through an air interface.

According to Shannon, Robert D.; Shannon, Ruth C.; Medenbach, Olaf; Fischer,
Reinhard X, refractive index, also called index of refraction, measure of the bending of
a ray of light when passing from one medium into another. If i is the angle of incidence
of a ray in vacuum (angle between the incoming ray and the perpendicular to the
surface of a medium, called the normal) and r is the angle of refraction (angle between
the ray in the medium and the normal), the refractive index n is defined as the ratio of
the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction; i.e., n = sin i /
sin r. Refractive index is also equal to the velocity of light c of a given wavelength in
c
empty space divided by its velocity v in a substance, or n = .
v

2.2 Types of Refraction

There are 3 types of refraction,diffuse refraction of light, specular refraction and

glossy refraction.
Diffuse refraction of light

Diffuse refraction scatters light in many angles.

Specular refraction

Specular surfaces reflect light at the same as the

angle at which the light strikes the surface.

Glossy refraction

Glossy surfaces are actually specular surfaces

with micro surfaces at angles to surface plane.

These micro surfaces refract light not only

specularly but also diffusely (at angles very close
to the specular transmission), giving the surface a
glossy appearance.

Figure 6 : The Types of Refraction

2.3 Refraction and Light Blending

Refraction is the bending of light (it also happens with sound, water and other waves)
as it passes from one transparent substance into another. This bending by refraction
makes it possible for us to have lenses, magnifying glasses, prisms and rainbows. Even
our eyes depend upon this bending of light. Without refraction, we wouldn’t be able
to focus light onto our retina. Light refracts whenever it travels at an angle into a
substance with a different refractive index (optical density). This change of direction is
caused by a change in speed. For example, when light travels from air into water, it
slows down, causing it to continue to travel at a different angle or direction.
 The amount of bending depends on two things, changing in speed – if a substance
causes the light to speed up or slow down more, it will refract (bend) more and angle of
the incident ray – if the light is entering the substance at a greater angle, the amount of
refraction will also be more noticeable. On the other hand, if the light is entering the
new substance from straight on (at 90° to the surface), the light will still slow down, but
it won’t change direction at all.

2.4 Lens

A lens is simply a curved block of glass or plastic. There are two types of lens.

A biconvex lens is thicker at the middle than it is at the edges. This is the kind of lens
used for a magnifying glass. Parallel rays of light can be focused in to a focal point. A
biconvex lens is called a converging lens.

Figure 7 : Refraction of Light through A Converging Lens

i) Converging lens

Each light ray entering a converging (convex) lens refracts inwards as it enters the
lens and inwards again as it leaves. These refractions cause parallel light rays to spread
out, travelling directly away from an imaginary focal point.

A biconcave lens curves is thinner at the middle than it is at the edges. Light rays
refract outwards (spread apart) as they enter the lens and again as they leave.

Figure 8 : Refraction of Llight through A Diverging Lens

ii) Concave lens

Each light ray entering a diverging (concave) lens refracts outwards as it enters the
lens and outwards again as it leaves. These refractions cause parallel light rays to spread
out, travelling directly away from an imaginary focal point.

2.5 Research on Refraction of Light

All of us have at one point experienced refraction of light. When a stick, pencil, straw,
and the like are immersed in water, soda, or any other transparent liquid, it is noticeable
that the former bends at the exact point where it gets into the liquid. This is an effect of
refraction. Refraction can thus be defined as the “bending of light as it enters a denser
medium from a less dense medium or as it enters a less dense medium from a denser
medium”.

This bending of light is due to the change in the speed at which the light travels in a
certain medium due to a higher or lower refractive index. Just like in reflection, the
respective angles separated by the normal are called “the angle of incidence and the
angle of refraction”.

As light moves to a medium which is less dense, it will be appropriately refracted

away from the perpendicular line “The maximum incident angle possible in the denser
medium, in order for the refracted ray to just emerge out into the less dense medium is
called the critical angle”.

2.6 Application of Refraction of Light

Application of refraction of light is a tool which helps us in understanding the basic

concepts about the refraction of light and its application. First of all let us understand
the basics of refraction of light and then we will study about application of refraction of
light.

Generally refraction of light occurs when the waves travels from one medium to
another medium, with some refractive index and it generally enters other medium at
oblique angle. There are various phenomenon’s associated with the refraction.
Refraction of light has a major scope in case of optics and in the field of technology. For
example, lens uses the basics of refraction of light to form an image of an object for
various purposes, such as magnification. The other example is prism which also uses
refraction to form a spectrum or band of colors from incident ray of light. In optical
illusion and mirage, refraction generally plays a big role.

Various scientific things have been explained with the help of refraction. Day to day
phenomenon’s are also explained with the help of refraction. One example which we
are most familiar is ‘Twinkling of stars’. This phenomenon is explained in this
way. The atmosphere which is blanket of earth actually consists of various layers of
varying densities. It is because of change in temperature and pressure. The
phenomenon is when the ray o f light enters into the layers of continuously increasing
densities they are being refracted because of change in medium. In this complete
process, ray of light follows curve path and hence it reaches to us. But because of the
wind and currents, the density of the layer continuously increases and hence in turn the
density of each layer goes on changing from layer to layer. And because of this at very
small interval of time, the position of the image of start keeps on changing, and hence it
ultimately produces the twinkle effect. This is all based on the concepts of refraction.
The same principle can be used to explain the apparent sunrise or sunset. The basic
concepts of refraction are used to describe the complete process. The other applications
of refraction are as follows:

i) Spear fishing, in which spear fisherman use a smart trick to catch the prey. The spear
fisherman generally aims at a point below where the fish seems to be. This is because
light actually changes its direction from one medium to another of different densities.
This change is basically known as refraction.

ii) Bending of stick in water. In water, a stick engrossed in water generally appears bent
and small when viewed at an angle from above. This is also because the rays of light
actually travel from water medium to air medium and hence in bend away from the
normal at the surface.

iii) A coin appears raised in water. The same explanation exists.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Flow Chart

This project is completed through 3 major steps. There are determining the angle of
incidence, determining the angle of refraction and determining the refractive index of
glass slab.

Determine the angle of incidence

Determine the angle of refraction

 Determine the refractive index of glass slab

Figure 9 : Focus of The Project

Figure 10 : Refraction of Light from Different Medium

3.2 The Steps to Determine the Incidence Angle, Refraction Angle and Refractive
Index of Glass

Referring to Figure 9, the outline of the glass slab is traced onto a sheet of white paper
and labeled as PQRS. The glass slab is removed. Point O is marked on the side PQ such
1
that OP= PQ. A protractor is used to draw and mark the normal through point O, and
3
mark the normal through point O, and lines forming angles of incidence of 20°, 30°, 40°,
50°, 60°and 70° with the normal. The glass slab is placed back on its outline on the
paper. A ray of light from the ray box is directed along the 20° line. The emerging ray
from the side RS is drawn. Step 5 is repeated with other angles of incidence. The glass
slab is removed. The refracted rays are drawn by joining the points of incidence to the
corresponding points of emergence of the rays of light. A protractor is used to measure
sin i
the respective angles of refraction. The values of sin i, sin r, and (which is the
sin r
refractive index of the glass, n) are calculated and tabulated. The average value of
sin i
is obtained. A graph of r against i and a graph of sin i against sin r are plotted.
sin r

3.3 List of Apparatus

 Figure 11:List of Apparatus

The apparatus in the experiment are glass slab, ray box, power supply, ruler, a pieces
of paper and semi-circular ruler.

3.4 Precaution Step

The power supply should be change the volt until we can see through the line clearly.
The shelter should be put in front of ray box to make sure a line was produced. The light
should be shined to the side of the glass slad. The experiment should be done in a
condition without parallex error. A paper shoulde be put under the glass slad to prevent
parallex error.

Chapter 4:Result and Discussion

Tabulation of data

Angle of Angle of Sin i Sin r sin i

incidence, i(°) refraction, r(°) n=
sin r

20 19 0.3420 0.3256 1.0504

30 30 0.5000 0.5000 1.0000
40 40 0.6428 0.6428 1.0000
50 50 0.7660 0.7660 1.0000
60 59 0.8660 0.8572 1.016
70 67 0.9397 0.9205 1.021
Table 1:Result of The Experiment

Table 1 shows the refractive index of the incidence angle, 20° is 1.0504, 30° is 1.0000,
40° is 1.000, 50° is 1.000, 60° is 1.016, 70° is 1.021.
Chapter 4:Discussion

The Graph r against i

80

70
67

60 59

50 50

40 40

30 30

20 19

10

0
20 30 40 50 60 70

Figure 12:The Graph r against i

The Graph of sin i against sin r

1
0.9205
0.9
0.8572
0.8
0.766
0.7
0.6428
0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4
0.3256
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Figure 13: The Graph of sin I and sin r

 To understand the refraction of light through a glass slab consider the figure
given below which shows the refraction of light through a rectangular glass slab.

A N

N’

N1

N'1 C
Figure 14: Refraction of Light from Different Medium

Here in this figure AO is the light ray travelling in air and incident on glass slab at
point O.Now on entering the glass medium this ray bends towards the normal NN’
that is light ray AO gets refracted on entering the glass medium. After getting
refracted this ray now travels through the glass slab and at point B it comes out of the
glass slab as shown in the figure. Since ray OB goes from glass medium to air it again
gets refracted and bends away from normal N1N'1 and goes in direction BC.Here AO is
the incident ray and BC is the emergent ray and they both are parallel to each other
and OB is the refracted ray.Emergent ray is parallel to incident ray because the extent
of bending of the ray of light at the opposite parallel faces which are PQ (air-glass
interface) and SR (glass-air interface) of the rectangular glass slab is equal and
opposite.In the figure i is the angle of incidence, r is the angle of refraction and e is
the angle of emergence. Angle of incidence and angle of emergence are equal as
emergent ray and incident ray are parallel to each other. When a light ray is incident
normally to the interface of two media then there is no bending of light ray and it goes
straight through the medium.

Laws of refraction of light(Snell�s law of refraction)

Refraction is due to change in the speed of light as it enters from one transparent
medium to another. Experiments show that refraction of light occurs according to the
Snell’s laws. So Laws of refraction of light are the incident ray, the refracted ray and
the normal to the interface of two transparent media at the point of incidence, all lie in
the same plane the ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction
is a constant, for the light of a given color and for the given pair of media. This law is
also known as Snell�s law of refraction. If i is the angle of incidence and r is the
sin i
angle of refraction then =constant=n. This constant value is called the refractive
sin r
index of the second medium with respect to the first.

The Refractive Index

From the experiment,we form that the refraction of light and the extent of the
change in direction that takes place in a given pair of media is expressed in terms of
the refractive index, the "constant" appearing in equation 1. The refractive index is
related to an important physical quantity that is relative speed of propagation of light
in different media as light propagates with different speeds in different media.
Consider the figure given below

Figure 15:Refraction of Light from Air to Glass

Let v1 be the speed of light in medium 1 and v2 be the speed of light in medium 2 then
the refractive index of medium 2 with respect to medium 1 is given by the ratio of the
speed of light in medium 1 and the speed of light in medium 2. So,

where n21 is the refractive index of medium 2 with respect to medium 1.The refractive
index of medium 1 with respect to medium 2 is represented as n12. It is given by

If medium 1 is vacuum or air, then the refractive index of medium 2 is considered

with respect to vacuum. This is called the absolute refractive index of the medium.
If c is the speed of light in the air and v is the speed of light in any medium then
refractive index nm of the medium would be
Chapter 5:Conclusion

Different types of incidence angle pass through the glass slad medium will produce
sin i
refractive index which must greater than 1. The formula of n= is true for light
sin r
passing from air into the medium.

The graph of r against I shows that as I increases, r also increases. The graph of
sin I against sin r shows a straight line passing through the origin. Therefore, sin I is
sin i
directly proportional to sin r. Since the value of =constant, thus Snell’s law is
sin r
verified.

However, the study of refractive index as shown in this experiment is far from
professional. More advanced methods involving more electronic apparatus and less
manual work will improve the accuracy of the results.

Reference

1. PhysicCatalyst.com

2. prezi.com

3. sandyco.weebly.com

4. cdac.olabs.edu.in

5. www.khanacademy.org

Appendix:

Figure 16 shows the group

members were preparing the
apparatus to do the experiment

Figure 16
 Figure 17 shows the member was
measuring the incident ray

Figure 17

Figure 18 shows the member was

putting the slade in front of ray
box

Figure 18

Figure 19 shows the member was

adjusting the apparatus

Figure 19

Figure 20 shows the member

was adjusting the ray box
Figure 20

Figure 21 shows the member was

drawing a line of refraction ray

Figure 21
 SMK ANDERSON

JALAN RAJA ASHMAN SHAH,

30450 IPOH, PERAK

STUDY ON REFRACTION OF LIGHT

TEOH YU XIAN(6AF2)

VINCENT CHONG CHUNG WENG(6AF2)

YEAP LING FEI(6AF2)

MADAM TEOH ANNY

OCTOBER 2019

Acknowledgement

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to our supervising teacher, Madam
Pn Anny who has kindly aided us and gave guidance to us throughout the research.
With her supervision, we were able to overcome all the problems and difficulty that
we faced in a smooth manner.

Besides, we would like to extend sincere appreciation to our family members and
lab assistants especially our dearest parents for their support for the whole research.
They gave us moral support and sponsored us the materials we needed for the
research.
 Last but not least, we would like to express our special thanks to our classmates and
beloved friends who had helped us to complete the experiment. They are always
generously helping us when we are facing problems. We found that it is difficult to
express our gratitude to all of them who kindly support us throughout the research
with just a few words of gratitude.