Fady Makram

Physics

Mr. Singh

1st March 2009

Lab Report

Aim of the experiment:

The aim of this experiment was to measure the refractive index of a

given glass slab, in this case a rectangular block.

Apparatus:

Light Box, paper, pins and a rectangular glass block.

Procedure:

I pinned the paper to the board using the flat head pins. I then turned
on the power for the light box and placed the glass block in front of the
ray of light coming from the light box. I placed a pin at the point of
incidence and another on the incident ray and I then connect the pins
to form both the incident ray and the point of incidence. Then I placed
another two pins to form the emergent ray and the connected them
with a pencil. I then joined then two rays with a straight line.

I used a protractor and drew a normal, which is an imaginary line

perpendicular to the glass block at the point of incidence. I measured
the angle of refraction, which is the angle between the normal drawn
at the point of incidence and the refractive ray. I recorded the angle of
refraction which was 14 degrees.

I used the same procedure to find the angle of incidence which was the
angle between the normal and the incident ray. I found the angle of
incidence to be 19 degrees

Observations:

When the ray enters the glass block, it bends towards the normal and
when it exists the glass block, it bends away from the normal. This is
because if a ray of light travels from a rarer to a denser material, the
 ray bends towards the normal and when it travels from a denser to a
rarer medium, it bends away from the normal.

Data Collected and Mathematical Procedure:

I obtained the readings from my group and formed a table to get an

average of the results.

sin ( i )
Using the mathematical formula Reflective Index = sin ( r ) I filled

out a table to form the results obtained from the lab.

Observati Angle of Angle of Sin(i) Sin(r) RI =

on # Incidence Refractio sin(i)/sin(
(i) n(r) r)
1 19 14 0.326 0.242 1.346
2 27 19 0.434 0.326 1.294
3 10 8 0.174 0.139 1.248
4 15 13 0.259 0.225 1.151

I averaged all the refractive indexes I obtained to get the most suitable and
reliable refractive index which was found to be 1.28475

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we found that a ray of light passing from a rarer to a

denser medium bends towards the normal and if a ray of light travels
from a denser to rarer medium the ray of light bends away from the
normal.