Refraction of light

Thread Starter

aliashar86

Joined Nov 23, 2006
71
Law of refraction

i) The incident ray, refracted ray and the pt of incident all lie in the same plane.

(Explain graphically)

ii) ratio of Sine<i to the Sine<r is equal to the constant 'n' i.e., refractive index.

(explain abt this constant, why it has been introduced)


why "Sine" is used here, why not "cosine" or "tangent"
 

fanie

Joined Jan 20, 2007
63
If the questin is why the sine wave was introduced, I may be able to answer that if you can tell me who introduced it ! Personally I'd have done for a square wave more digital type of thing ya know...

Google a bit will you, many of us a done it already, your turn to do research a some.
 

Thread Starter

aliashar86

Joined Nov 23, 2006
71
i) The incident ray, refracted ray and the pt of incident all lie in the same plane.

(Explain graphically)

Thanx i got the exact ans for the 2nd point
but plz explain the above one
 

Thread Starter

aliashar86

Joined Nov 23, 2006
71
Secondly how the "Normal" is drawn in the prism

i think its related with both the incident ray and refracted ray but my q is tht whether we first draw normal or incident ray n refr ray
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Law of refraction

i) The incident ray, refracted ray and the pt of incident all lie in the same plane.

(Explain graphically)

ii) ratio of Sine<i to the Sine<r is equal to the constant 'n' i.e., refractive index.

(explain abt this constant, why it has been introduced)


why "Sine" is used here, why not "cosine" or "tangent"
They all lie in the same plane because light travels in straight lines and not curved trajectories. At least in the absence of strong gravitational fields such as would be found in the vicinity of a Black Hole.

The refractive index is introduced so the path of a refracted beam may be computed. It uses the sine function because the geometry requires it.

Where did you get the quaint notion that various trigonometric functions were somehow equivalent and interchangeable?
 

thingmaker3

Joined May 16, 2005
5,083
"Normal" is a gemetry term. It means "at right angles to the plane." Draw it whenever you like, as long as you remember to draw it perpendicular to the surface.

I'm not sure what is meant by "graphic explanation." The incident and reflected (or refracted) rays share a common point. Any two intersecting lines (or rays) are co-planar. This is because of the definition of "line" and "plane." The common point (the point of reflection or refraction) and any other point along the ray define the ray. The common point, along with the two random points defining the two rays, define a plane.
 
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