Figure: Refraction of Light

 Laws of Refraction include;

o The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal at the point of incidence, all three lies in the same plane.
o The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction is constant( refractive index) for a
pair of two media (Snell’s Law)
………………………….. (1)

Assn. 1: Derive equation 1****

 Refractive index plays a central role in geometric optics. It is the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to the speed
in the material
Example
1. The figure below is a phenomena for refraction and reflection, determine θr and θb

[Ans: 600, 49.30]

2. During ultrasonic imaging, ultrasound is incident at an angle of 100 in soft tissue on to a plane soft tissue-bone
boundary. If the angle of refraction in the bone is 27.40, calculate the speed of ultrasound in bone given that it
is 1.54km/s in soft tissue. [Ans: 4.08x103m/s]

Fermat’s Principle & Refraction

***show this***

REFLECTION ON CURVED SURFACES

Consider the illustration shown

9
 The illustration shows a spherical mirror with radius of curvature R, with its concave side facing the
incident light.
 The center of curvature of the surface (the center of the sphere of which the surface is a part) is at C, and
the vertex of the mirror (the center of the mirror surface) is at V.
 The line CV is called the optic axis/principal axis. Point P is an object point that lies on the optic axis;
for the moment, we assume that the distance from P toV is greater than R
 Ray PV, passing through C, strikes the mirror normally and is reflected back on itself. Ray PB, at an
angle α with the axis, strikes the mirror at B, where the angles of incidence and reflection are θ. The
reflected ray intersects the axis at point P’ where the real image of P is formed.
 The object distance, measured from the vertex V, is s; the image distance, also measured from V, is s’
 Principally, there are two types of spherical mirrors, concave and convex; For a concave mirror, the
focal point (P’) is in front of the mirror. For a convex mirror, the focal point is behind the mirror.

 The focal length (f) is the distance from the surface of the mirror/reflecting surface to the focal point. It
can be shown that the focal length is half the radius of curvature of the mirror.
o Sign Convention: the focal length is negative if the focal point is behind the mirror.
 For a concave mirror, f = ½R
 For a convex mirror, f = −½R
 (R is always positive)

The mirror equation

 Consider the illustrations below

10
 A ray from the object to vertex as in figure (a), and a ray through C as in figure (b) results into the
relations;
() ( )

 Equation (i) and (ii) compared yields;

( )

 The equation (iii) is known as the mirror equation, do= distance from object to mirror, di= distance from
image to mirror, and f = focal length
 For sign convention, do is positive if the object is in front of the mirror (real object) while negative if the
object is at the back of the mirror (virtual object), di is positive if the image is in front of the mirror (real
image) while negative if the image is behind the mirror (virtual image); f is positive for concave mirrors
while negative for convex mirrors

Example

Determine the value of h’ and R in the diagram below.

11
Refraction on spherical surface

 This involves a spherical interface between two optical materials with different indexes of refraction.
 This analysis is directly applicable to some real optical systems, such as the human eye. It also provides
a stepping-stone for the analysis of lenses, which usually have two spherical (or nearly spherical)
surfaces.
 Consider the illustration below

 The object–image relationship, spherical refracting surface can be shown to be;

……………………….. (iv)
 To determine lateral magnification with respect to refraction on spherical surfaces, the relation below
become handy;

……………………….. (v)
 The equations (iv) and (v) can be applied to both convex and concave refracting surfaces, provided that
you use the sign rules consistently.
 Refraction at a curved surface is one reason gardeners avoid watering plants at midday. As sunlight
enters a water drop resting on a leaf, the light rays are refracted toward each other. The sunlight that
strikes the leaf is therefore more concentrated and able to cause damage.
 The displacement of astronomical objects by atmospheric refraction is known as astronomical
refraction. The effects are many orders of magnitude larger than the accuracy of the best astronomical
position measurements, and so large that the mountings of most astronomical telescopes are adjusted to
minimize the effects of refraction.

12
Examples

1. Determine s’ and lateral magnification from the illustration below

2. If a mark of size 0.2 cm on the surface of a glass sphere (figure below) of diameter 10 cm and μ =
1.5 is viewed through diametrically opposite point, where will the image be seen and of what size?
(take µ for air to be 1.0)

[20 cm towards object from point of observation & size is 0.6 cm]

LENSES

 A lens is an object that uses refraction to bend light and form images
 Lenses can be broadly classified as shown

13