BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

Physics Practical
Investigation
I.

Introduction The aim of the experimentTo find the refractive index of the glass slab using the values of sin of angle of incidence
and sin of angle of refractions obtained from performing the experiment. The formula
that we will be using to obtain the refractive index will be: -

sin1 n2
n

sin 2 n1
The different variables in this experiment are as follows Independent Variable angle of incidence (i)
Dependent Variable angle of refraction (r)
Controlled Variable - same glass slab for all readings.

II. Procedure and Materials required-

Apparatus required for the experiment

Apparatus needed:
(i) A glass slab
(ii)Thumb pins and al pins
(iii)Ruler (precision = 0.1cm and total length 100cm)
(iv)Protractor
(v) Pencil/Pen
(vi) Wooden Board

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

Theory for the experiment: Bending of a light waves when it passes from one medium to another is called refraction.
This happens due to the change in the velocity of the light wave when it enters or comes
out of a medium. That is why, when the light waves move from a denser to a rarer
medium, the light bends away from the normal. Whereas, when light moves from a rarer
to a denser medium, the light moves towards the normal. The two laws of refraction, also
called the Snells laws of refraction are:1) Incident ray, Refracted ray and normal, at the point of incidence, all lie on the same
plane.
2) The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to sine of angle of refraction for a given colour,
wavelength and frequency of light in a given medium is called as Refractive Index of the
medium. The amount of the bending of light after refraction depends on the refractive
index of the medium.

Procedure of the experimentPart A

1) Take a sheet and punch it on the wooden board.
2) Draw the impression of the glass slab on it and then draw a incident ray for the required angle on
it.
3) Insert to pins on the incident ray on the incident ray, 5 cms apart of each other.
4) Placing the glass slab on the impression, look through it from the other side.
5) Now looking through, insert two more pins such that all four of them appear to be in a straight
line when looking through the slab.
6) Take off the pins and the slab form the board and mark the points of the refracted ray and join
them.
7) Perform the steps above again thrice for the same angle and

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

III.Data Collection and PresentationThe tables including all the necessary details are as followsAngle of
incidence
i/
i=0.5

Angle of
refraction
r1/
r1=0.5

Angle of
refraction
r2/
r2=0.5

Angle of
refraction
r3/
r3=0.5

Average of
angle r
ravg/
ravg=0.5

20.0
25.0
30.0

14.0
16.0
18.0

13.0
16.0
17.0

13.0
17.0
19.0

13.5
16.5
18.0

35.0
40.0
45.0
50.0

20.0
21.0
28.0
31.0

21.0
22.0
28.0
31.0

20.0
22.0
27.0
32.0

20.5
22.0
28.0
31.0

Table-1
Raw data
from the

experiment

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

In the above table: The Angles are measured using a protractor, thus the uncertainty along with is half the least count of the
instrument, thus=0.5.
Considering readings from above to see how the average of , r/ was achieved.

r1 r2 r3
3

= for example, the reading for angle I = 20

14 1313
3

=13.33
=13.5 (to agree with the uncertainty in r/, we round off all the values to the nearest 0.5)

Processed Data Table

Angle of incidence
i/
i=0.5

Angle of refraction
ravg/

Sin i

Sin r

sin r

ravg=0.5
20.0
25.0
30.0

13.5
16.5
18.0

0.346
0.423
0.511

0.237
0.284
0.313

0.009
0.008
0.008

35.0
40.0
45.0
50.0

20.5
22.0
28.0
31.0

0.571
0.644
0.713
0.767

0.359
0.382
0.471
0.523

0.008
0.008
0.008
0.008

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

Table-2: including the sin values of the angles and the uncertainty. -

Calculating the Uncertainties in Sin r.

For Uncertainty in sine of angle of refraction:Since the uncertainty of ravg is 0.5, hence uncertainty in the sine of ravg = sine of ravg sine of (ravg0.5)
Say, for example, uncertainty for 16.5 ravg = (sin 16.5-sin16) = 0.008 hence, sin r= 0.2840.008
and so on for rest of the values of ravg as well, has the uncertainty been calculated.

IV.Data Processing and Presentation

The graph for the experiment based on the above table-1 is as under-

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

Sin r vs Sin i
0.55
0.5
f(x) = 0.64x + 0.01

0.45
0.4
Sin r -->

Sin r vs Sin i
Linear ( Sin r vs Sin i )

0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

sin i -->

In the graph above for sin i against sin r, the graph was generated as such. We can see the Slope for
the graph written in the equation generated, that is ; 0.66
As mentioned in the theory above the (refractive index) can be found with the slope.

Plotting the graph with the uncertainties to get the maximum and
minimum values in respect to Table-2: -

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

0.55

0.5

f(x) = 0.68x - 0.01

f(x)
f(x) =
= 0.64x
0.61x +
+ 0.01
0.03

0.45

0.4
Linear ()

Sin r -->

max graph
Linear (max graph)

0.35

min graph
Linear (min graph)
0.3

0.25

0.2
0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8
sin i -->

We know that,

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

sin i
sin r
1
sin r
sin i

Comparing this with the standard straight-line equation (y=mx + c), the gradient of the graph is
1/ .

The value for : As per the best fit equation of the graph plotted above, (y = 0.6448x + 0.0056)
1
=
g (where g= the gradient of the best fit line)

= 1.55

1
0.6448

To calculate the uncertainty in :

For the maximum value of ,
max=

1
gmin

1
0.6071
= 1.647
gmin can be obtained from the graphs equation, (y = 0.6071x + 0.0316)

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

For the minimum value of ,

min=

1
gmax

gmaxcan be obtained from the graphs equation, (y = 0.6786x - 0.0087)

gmax = 0.6786
=
1
0.6786
=1.474
For the uncertainty in the value of g we calculated maximum and minimum g, to get g.

max min
2

1.647 1.474
2

= 0.0865

=0.09 (1 s.f.)

Final value of = 1.55 0.09

V. Conclusion and Evaluation

ConclusionThe aim of the experiment was to determine the value for refractive index, after plotting
the data obtained from the experiment on the graph.
Since almost all the points on the graph fall under the region of the maximum and minimum graphs, the
chances for random error is very low value. As far as systemic errors are concerned the y-intercept of the
best fit line from my generated equation is 0.0056, which is almost negligible and so I can safely
conclude that their have been minimum systematic errors; because in the equation for refractive index
sini

sin r ) doesnt have any value for y intercept.
being (
The literature value of refractive index for a crown glass = 1.52 (avg)

BHAMBHANI, PUNEET

MAY 2013
PHYSICS DCP- CE

002328-006

The value I attained after performing the practical= 1.55, which isnt far away from the literature value
which proves that the experiments hypothesis was supported by the values attained. Concluding, The
0.3
100
percentage error in the experiment is 1.52
1.97%

EvaluationPOSSIBLE ERRORS

Reason

IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES

Erection of the pins and

incorrectly locating the
pins to determine the
emergent ray

Few pins used in the experiment

did not stand perpendicularly on
the sheet but were bending at
some random angles. This would
have again led to some errors, as
it would have slightly varied to
accurate results while tracing the
pins on the other side of the glass
slab. Also, while tracing the ray
on the other side of the slab, at
times considering the tip of the
pin and not its base, is another
major reason to lead to the
generation of errors in result. Also
the pins might bend while trying
to push into the wooden board

Use of monochromatic
coherent light source like lasers
of constant intensity or a ray
box would be a better
alternative to the pins used and
hence would aid in reducing
the errors to an enormous
extent.

10