Reflection and Refraction and Mirrors and Lenses

Rays Usually light travels in straight lines, whether it is emitted or reflected, until it meets something that changes its direction. In this case, we view the light wave as a ray, which is always normal to the surface of the wave front. The path of light can be represented by light rays, which we draw as straight lines. A set of light rays is called a light beam. Reflection and Refraction Waves can be reflected and refracted by various surfaces placed in the path of the wave. Consider a light ray that is incident on a plane glass surface.

n1

1 1

n2

n3

We see that the beam is partially reflected and partially transmitted. The transmitted beam is bent both upon entering the surface and upon exiting it. Let 1 be the angle the incident beam makes with the normal to the surface of the glass. Also, let 1 be the angle the reflected beam makes with the normal, let 2 be the angle of the beam in the glass surface, and let 3 be the angle of the beam that exits the glass surface. The reflected and refracted rays lie in the plane formed by the incident ray and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence. This plane is called the plane of incidence. The incident and reflected rays are equal, that is, 1' = 1. This is called the law of reflection.

Mirrors Consider a plane mirror.

The figure shows a narrow bundle of light rays coming from a point source P reflected in a plane mirror. After reflection, the rays diverge exactly as if they came from a point P' behind the plane of the mirror. The point P' is called the image of the object P. When these rays enter the eye, they cannot be distinguished from rays diverging from a source P' with no mirror. The image is called a virtual image because the light does not actually emanate from the image but only appears to. Geometric construction using the law of reflection shows that the image lies on the line through the object perpendicular to the plane of the mirror and at a distance behind the plane equal to the distance from the plane to the object. If the source is an extended object: A mirror image is upright, but appears reversed right to left. A mirror image appears to be the same distance behind the mirror that the object is in front of the mirror. A mirror image is the same size as the object. Spherical Mirror Spherical mirrors are of two types, concave (converging) and convex (diverging).

F C

The center of the sphere of which the mirror forms part of is called the center of curvature (C). The central point of the mirror is called the pole (P). The line passing through the pole and the center of curvature is called the principal axis. The radius of curvature (r) is the distance between the pole and the center of curvature. The focal point or principal focus (F) is the point through which the rays of light parallel to the principal axis either pass or appear to pass. The focal length (f) is the distance between the pole and the focal point. The radius of curvature is always twice the focal length. That is r = 2f

P' P

The figure above shows a bundle of rays from a point on the axis of a concave spherical mirror reflecting from the mirror and converging at point P'. The rays then diverge from this point just as if there were an object at that point. This image is called a real image because the light actually does emanate from the image point. It can be seen by an eye placed to the left of the image looking into the mirror. It could also be observed on a viewing screen placed at the image point. A virtual image cannot be observed on a screen at the image point because there is no light there. Despite this distinction between real and virtual images, the light rays diverging from a real image and those appearing to diverge from a virtual image are identical, so that no distinction is made by the eye when viewing either a real or virtual image. Mirrors that have their reflective surfaces on the outside of a curve are called convex mirrors. A parallel sat of rays travelling towards a convex mirror will spread out after reflection. The rays appear to come from a point behind the mirrorthis is called the virtual focal point of the mirror. Convex mirrors always produce virtual, upright, diminished images. Law of Refraction A ray of light travels along a straight path within the same medium (eg. air, water, or glass). However, experiments show that when a ray of light enters one medium from another, the ray often changes direction at the point of incidence. This change of path is due to refraction. Refraction is the bending of the light path as it passes from one transparent material to another. The angle between the incident ray and the normal to the boundary between the two media is called the angle of incidence. The angle between the refracted ray and the normal is called the angle of refraction. The change of direction depends on the angle of incidence and the media. This bent or refracted ray relates with the incident ray by the so-called laws of refraction: The refracted ray is in the same plane as the incident ray and the normal to the mirror at the point of incidence, but on the opposite side of the normal from the incident ray. For two particular media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is constant, i.e.

sin i1 = constant sin i2

This constant depends on the nature of the media. It is called the relative refractive index. This equation is known as Snells Law. The relative refractive index is often labelled as 1n2, hence we have:

sin i1 =1 n 2 sin i2
The absolute refractive index of a substance is the relative refractive index from a vacuum (n = 1.00) to the substance. The refractive index of air is so close to 1.00 that for practical purposes, its value is taken to be exactly 1.00. The refractive index for glass varies with the composition of the glass. The most common value is 1.5. An important relation for the refractive indices of two media:

sin i1 n2 = sin i2 n1 ,
or

n1 sin i1 = n2 sin i2 ,

Where n1 and n2 are absolute refractive indices of the two media. The relative refractive index of the two media is the ratio of the speeds of light in the two media. For a ray of light travelling from medium A to medium B:

sin i1 n2 v1 = = sin i2 n1 v2
Where v1 is the speed of light in medium A and v2 is the speed of light in medium B. Also, the expression:

sin i1 sin i1 v1 f 1 1 . gives = = = sin i2 sin i2 v2 f 2 2

In going from a medium with a small absolute index of refraction to one with a large absolute index of refraction, the ray will bend toward the normal. In going from a medium with a large index of refraction to one with a small index of refraction, the ray will bend away from the normal. We say that a material is optically denser if it has a higher absolute refractive index. Light is refracted toward the normal when it travels into a medium of higher optical density. Optical density and density are not related. Total Internal Reflection Recall that when light goes from a more optically dense medium to a less dense medium (e.g. from glass to air) the refracted ray is bent away from the normal. The refracted angle increases with the incident angle. When the refracted angle equals 90, the incident angle is said to be the critical angle. We can find the critical angle, c , from Snell's Law. Let n2 < n1. Then if we set 1 = c and 2 = 90 we get:

c = sin 1

n2 sin ( 90 ) n1

= sin 1

n2 n1

Further increase in the incident angle will cause total internal reflection, all the incident light is reflected back into the incident medium, and no refracted ray exists. No refraction occurs because in this case Snells Law would imply a refracted angle having sin 1 > 1, which is mathematically impossible. Fibre optics confine light beams in a bent glass rod.

Lenses A lens is made of any transparent material bounded by curved surfaces. Each of a lens's two faces is part of a sphere with a refractive index greater than that of the air. One face may also be plane or flat. A lens is called a convex lens if it is thicker at the center than at the edges, and it is called a concave lens if it is thinner at the center than at the edges. Lenses cause a beam of light to bend on passing through it. Converging lenses are convex and diverging lenses are concave. Converging lenses bend the light in such a way that as light rays pass through, they come together. Diverging lenses bend light so that the rays spread out. The line joining the center of curvature of the two surfaces is the principal axis of the lens. A lens has two symmetrically located focal points on its central axis, one on either side, with the properties that: An incident ray parallel to the central axis is refracted through the focal point. An incident ray through the focal point is refracted parallel to the central axis.

By drawing rays of these two types, one can construct a ray diagram to determine the location and orientation of the image formed by an object.

Images Formed by Lenses To locate the position of the image of an object, two of the following rays are required: A ray leaving the same point on the object, through the center of the lens, which is undeviated. A ray parallel to the principal axis, which passes or appears to pass through the principal focus. A ray passing or appearing to pass through the principal focus, emerging from the lens parallel to the principal axis. Images are described by: Nature: is the image real or virtual Orientation: is the image upright or inverted Position: the distance of the image from the optical axis Size: what is the height of the image Magnification: The magnification produced by a lens is defined by m, where

m=

height of image . height of object

Ray tracing: Locate object Draw ray from the top of the arrow through center of lens and extend on the rear side. Draw a parallel ray to the principal axis. This ray refracts from the principal plane and passes through rear focal point. Extend this last ray back to the front side of the lens. The image is formed where rays meet. Examples Convex Lens. Object beyond "f". front rear

object image principal axis

f
principal plane

The image is real and inverted; image will be smaller than object

Convex Lens. Object between end and "f":

image front object f principal plane principal axis f rear

The image is virtual and erect; image will be larger than object Concave Lens

front object image f

rear principal axis f principal plane

The image is virtual, upright and diminished.

Thin-lens Equation If s0 and s1 denote the distances of an object and image from the lenss center, respectively, and f denotes the lenss focal length, then:

1 1 1 + = s o si f
A negative value of s1 indicates a virtual image (on the same side of the lens as the object), which will be produced by a converging (convex) lens whenever the object is closer to the lens than the focal length.

A negative value of f denotes a diverging (concave) lens (which always produces virtual images).

The magnification produced by a lens is defined by m, where:

m=

height of image s1 height of image s = .or m = = 1 height of object s0 height of object s0

Sign Convention The complete sign convention for mirrors and lenses: R f so si ho hi radius of curvature focal length object distance image distance object size image size + for converging, - for diverging + for converging, - for diverging + for real object + for real images, - for virtual images + if upright, - if inverted + if upright, - if inverted