Investigating Light

How to investigate refraction of light through a solid block?

1. Place the block on a piece of paper and draw around it using a pencil

2. Draw the normal 90 to the block two opposite sides of the block

3. Place the block on the paper and use a ray box to shine light through the block from one side of the normal

4. Use a pencil to place crosses on the incident ray and the emerging ray

5. Remove block and turn off ray box

6. Draw a line using a ruler and a pencil through the crosses

7. Connect lines by drawing a straight line in the block shape

8. Measure the angle of incidence and refraction to the normal

9. Repeat for different materials and compare

How will the angle of refraction differ?

more optically dense material will cause the angle to be smaller

How to investigate reflection of light on a solid object?

1. Draw a straight line on a piece of paper using a pencil and a ruler

2. Place the object so the side lines on to this line

3. Use a ray box to shine light on the side of the object

4. Draw the normal on the point where the ray hits the object

5. Place several crosses on the incident and reflected ray

6. Turn off ray box and draw straight lines through the crosses using a ruler

7. Measure the angle of incidence and reflection to the normal and he width and brightness of reflected ray

8. Repeat for a range of objects and compare

How will the angle of reflection differ?

It will be equal to the angle of incidence

How will the reflected ray differ?

For rough surfaces, the ray will be dimmer and wider

Conclusion

the angle of reflection and refraction changes for each material