PhysicsLAB Worksheet
Refraction Phenomena

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1. What is the wavelength of green light, λ = 500 nm in a vacuum, while it is traveling through a diamond, n = 2.4?
 
2. What is the frequency of the green light in question #1?
 
3. When white light passes through a triangular prism, which color is least deviated - that is, which color travels the fastest through glass?
 
4. If the index of refraction for green light in glass is 1.510 and for violet light is 1.523, what is the angular dispersion between the rays of these two wavelengths when emerge from the prism shown below? (Draw a diagram showing how the light travels through the prism.)
triangularprismdispersion.gif (2253 bytes)
 
5. What is the critical angle if light traveling in glass (n = 1.5) is submerged in water (n = 1.33)?
 
6. If the external medium remains constant, as a substance's index of refraction increases, the critical angle decreases.
 
7. Which of the following does NOT occur when light enters a less optically dense medium?



 
8. Light can no longer escape from an optically dense medium into air once it reaches an angle of incidence within the medium equal to or greater than 30º.  What is the index of refraction for this medium?
 
9. Calcite crystals display two distinct indices of refraction and therefore two distinctly transmitted images (one along the ordinary ray and the other along the extraordinary ray). These crystals are part of a family of minerals called birefringent materials.
 
Foto-Laboratory University of Pisa
 
When a polarizer is rotated above the crystal shown above,


 
10. In an optical fiber, light actually
 
image courtesy of
Dr. Joseph Alward, University of the Pacific
 



 
11. Atmospheric refraction would make the total amount of daylight time available a bit
 
images courtesy of
Dr. Joseph Alward, University of the Pacific
 


 
12. A mirage is a result of atmospheric
 
image courtesy of
Dr. Joseph Alward, University of the Pacific
 
13. Which of the following does NOT contribute to the formation of a rainbow?
 

image courtesy of
Dr. Joseph Alward, University of the Pacific
 




 
14. True or False. In order for a person to view a rainbow, he only needs one raindrop since every raindrop disperses all of the colors in the spectrum.
 
15. The critical angle for a transparent medium is the minimum angle at which all light within the material is totally internally
 
16. Refraction causes the bottom of a swimming pool to appear


 
17. When viewed from above, how deep would a coin resting in the bottom of a pan of water 20 cm deep, appear be?
 
 



 
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