SOUTH ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLGY AND MEDICINE (SAITM) FACULTY OF ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT OF MECHATRONICS

UG20.02 ELECTROMAGNETISM AND OPTICS 1

EXPERIMENT NO.10 REVERSIBILITY

INSTRUCTED BY: Ms. Priyanka Liyana Arachchi NAME: STUDENT ID: GROUP NO.: FIELD: DATE OF PER: DATE OF SUB: Kanagasingham.S EN11ME2032 1-3 Mechatronics 2011/07/21 2011/07/28 1

OBSERVATIONS Table No. 01 shows the angles of reflection and angles of refraction as observed from the ray table. Trial 1 Trial 2 Ray Incident on flat surface Ray incident on the curve surface Angle of Incidence Angle of Refraction Angle of Incidence Angle of Refraction ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) 0 0 0 0 10 7 7 11 20 13 13 20 30 19 19 29 40 25 25 39 50 31 31 50 60 35 35 57-59 70 39 39 68-71 80 41 41 75-80 Table No. 01: Results

CALCULATIONS AND RESULTS y Determining the axes for graph.

Rearranging:  Equating to y = mx We can assume for the y-axis and  for the x-axis.

Similarly,   

From Graph No. 01, m1 (gradient of m1 = = 1.50. (2 d.p.) vs ) = 1.5028 =



= 1.5028

(nair = 1.0)

Similarly, m2 =    =  0.672   2

Trial 1: x (sin( y (sin( Trial 2: x (sin( y (sin(

1

r1 )

0 0.1219 0.225 0.3256 0.4226 0.515 0.5736 0.6293 0.6561 0.5 0.6428 0.766 0.866 0.9397 0.9848 i1 ) 0 0.1736 0.342

r2 )

0 0.1908 0.342 0.4848 0.6293 0.766 0.848 0.9367 0.9763 ) 0 0.1219 0.225 0.3256 0.4226 0.515 0.5736 0.6293 0.6561 i2

0.9

Trial 1 y = 1.5028x

0.8

0.7

Trial 2 y = 0.672x
0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Graph No. 01: Incident vs Refracted angles

Questions 1. Is the law of refraction the same for light rays going in either direction between the two media? From the experiment we saw that the index of refraction for light when moving in either direction between air and acrylic is almost the same . Therefore, the law of refraction is the same for light rays going in either direction between the two media. 2. Does the principle of optical reversibility hold for reflection as well as refraction? Explain. We noticed that the light rays reflect partially when the angle of incidence was 80. The reflected ray also made an angle of 80 with the normal showing that the principle of optical reversibility holds for reflection as well as refraction.

DISCUSSION: In this experiment, we determined the relationship between the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction for light passing from air into a more optically dense medium, in this D-Shaped case acrylic lens. We also investigate onto whether the same relationship holds for the angles of incidence and refraction if the order is reversed, i.e., if light passes from acrylic to a less dense medium like air. We first arranged the equipment like in Figure No. 01 and shown a beam of light perpendicular to the acrylic lens. Slowly we changed the angle of incidence in 10 steps and measured the angle of refraction for every 10 and tabulated the results. We noticed that the part of the rays reflected back when the angle was increased to 80.

Figure No. 01: Trial 1

We then rotated the table around such that the other extreme of 0 is where the ray first enters (through the curve surface of the D-Shaped lens) as shown in Figure No.02. This time we rotated the table such that the angles of incidence is equal to the angles of refraction obtained from the first trial and tabulated the corresponding new angles of refraction. In this case we noticed that the light dispersed (separated into its colors) when the angle of incidence exceeded 57. Since there was a range of angles with red light having the smallest refraction and blue having the highest, I took the average of the range for calculation purposes.

Figure No. 02: Trial 2 Using Snells Law and by plotting a graph for sin i1 vs sin r1 where i1 and r1 are the angles of incidence and the angles of refraction as measured from the first trial, I found a value for the index of refraction for the acrylic. On the same axes I then plotted the sin r2 vs sin i2 where i2 and r2 are the angles of incidence and the angles of refraction as measured in the second trial. I used the gradient of each curve to obtain two sets of values for the index of refraction of acrylic and compared the two values to realize that they were almost the same. Independent of which direction light travels in through two mediums, the index of refraction for the light does not change. Optical reversibility means that if a light passes through a medium with an index of refraction, n, and the light hits that medium at a certain angle, the angle of incidence, the light refracts and comes out at a different angle than the angle of incidence. In other words, if light hits a refracting medium at to the normal, it will refract and come out at  to the normal. Then, if it were switched, and the light were made to hit the refracting medium at  to the normal, then it would refract and come out at to the normal. This is optical reversibility as seen in refraction. In reflection, however, the angle of incidence and the angle of reflection is the same. If light hits a reflecting medium at , it will reflect at an angle of . So if the angles were switched in this case, it would do nothing, it would just hit the reflecting medium at and again be reflected at .

REFERENCES: y WikiAnswers, Does the principle of optical reversibility hold for reflection as well as refraction?, (16/07/2011), http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_the_principle_of_optical_reversibility_hold_for_reflection_as _well_as_refraction#ixzz1TJwrWNzb 5