PhysicsLAB Practice Problems
Sample Refraction Exercises

Topics: On this worksheet you will examine several situations dealing with properties of light as it travels through transparent media.

Page Directions The numerical values in this worksheet are randomly generated allowing students the opportunity to conveniently practice, and drill, common situations.

Before beginning any given worksheet, please look over all of the questions and make sure that there are no duplicate answers shown for the same question. If duplicates are present simply refresh the page until every answer is unique.

In order to check an answer (even when you are just starting the worksheet on Question 1) it is necessary to omit any questions that you have not answered. Once you start submitting answers, the page may be checked as many times as necesasary without changing the randomized answers. Relevant scoring will be provided at the top of the page only when you answer all of the questions on your original submission.


Question 1  A beam of light traveling in air has an angle of incidence of 39.0º when it enters a medium which has an index of refraction of 1.44.
What is the angle of refraction of the beam inside the medium?
Question 2  If the wavelength of the beam of light in air is 589 nm, then what is its wavelength while traveling through the medium?
Question 3  If part of the beam of light reflects off the surface of the medium, what is the angle between the refracted beam and the reflected beam?
Question 4  Referencing the following image, the angle labeled q3 is the critical angle of the medium. Will the reflected ray shown also be internally reflected when it strikes the upcoming vertical interface or will it be refracted back out into the air?
Question 5  What is the frequency of the light as it is traveling through the medium?


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