EXPERIMENT:

HYPOTHESIS: D/i is a constant.

THEORY: Refraction of light is the change in the direction of travel of a light beam which
occurs as the light crosses the boundary between one transparent medium to another. The law of
refraction, which is generally known as Snell's law, governs the behaviour of light-rays as they
propagate across a sharp interface between two transparent dielectric media. Snells law states
that the incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal at the point of incidence all lie in the same
plane. The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is called
the refracted index and is used to indicate the direction of travel of the light.
When light travels from a medium to a denser medium, the light slows down and consequently is
refracted towards the normal. Thus the distance by which the light has been displaced after its
binding through a glass slab is known as lateral displacement.
VARIABLES:
Controlled: the position of which the glass block is placed, the glass block, sheet
of paper,
Manipulated: Angles of incident
Responding: lateral displacement

APPARATUS:

Optical board
Glass block
Paper
Pencil
Ruler
Protractor
Nails

Michael
Timson
Physics

DIAGRAM:
DIAGRAM SHOWING SET UP OF THE EXPERIMENT

Incident Ray
Normal
i

Angle of
incidence

Angle of
refraction

Extended
Incident Ray
Glass Block

d1

Emergent Ray
Lateral
Displacement

d2
d3

Michael
Timson
Physics

METHOD:
1. Tack the paper into the optical board.
2. Place the glass block in the centre of the paper and draw the outline the glass block with
a pencil
3. Use a protractor to draw in the normal one third of the length of the block. Label the
intersection of the normal and the glass block as point O.
4. Use the protractor to measure out and draw in the angle of incidence, i, of 15, 30, 45,
60 and 75. Extend the lines to the edge of the paper.
5. Place two pins, A and B, on the 15 line upright so that A is as close to the glass block as
possible and pin B is as close to the edge as possible.
6. Look through the glass block at the images of A and B, so that image B is directly behind
the image of A. Place pin C close to the block so that it appears to be in line with the
image of A and B.
7. Place a fourth pin close to the edge so that it is in line with C and the images of A and B.
8. Draw a line through pin holes and extend it back to the glass block (point R). This
represents the emergent ray.
9. Connect point R and point O. This represents the refracted ray. Draw arrows on the
incident and the emergent ray, indicating the direction in which the light travels.

10. Extend the incident ray, through the glass block, to the end of the page to create a virtual
ray.

Michael
Timson
Physics

11. Measure at three different locations, between the emergent ray and the incident ray, the
distance of the lateral ray. Ensure that the distance is measure perpendicular to the
emergent ray.
12. Repeat the procedure for the other incident rays,

RESULTS:
TABLE SHOWING THE LATERAL DISPLACEMENT FOR EACH ANGLE OF INCIDENT
i^

Lateral displacement /cm

d1

d2

Average

d3

15
30
45
60
75

CALCULATIONS: -

PRECAUTIONS:
1. Ensure that the glass block is positioned to the original place each time the emergent ray
and refracted ray is derived.
2. Use straight pins.
3. Ensure that the normal is perpendicular to the glass block
4. Ensure that the lateral displacement is perpendicular to the emergent ray.
5. Ensure that the glass block do not contain any chips or manufacture deformities.
6. Ensure that the lining up of the pins is viewed from a low angle to reduce parallax error

Michael
Timson
Physics

7. After placing the pins, tilt a little to the right then to the left to ensure that the pin was
placed correctly.

LIMITATIONS:
1. Visually impaired can cause inaccurate placement of the pins resulting in a wrong
emergent ray and hence a wrong measurement of the lateral displacement.
2. Glass block may have deformities.

EXPECTED RESULTS:
If d/I is a constant, a straight line graph will be obtained with a (0,0) origin.

CONCLUSIONS: Within the limits of experimental error ..

Michael
Timson
Physics