Chapter 33

The Nature and Propagation of Light

In-class Assignment
Test Your
Topic Problems (Exercise )
Understanding
(Example)

1st Class TYU-33.2 33.1 33.21

The nature of Light, Reflection and
Refraction, Total Internal Reflection TYU-33.3 33.5 33.27
TYU-33.5

Polarization (Maluss Law,

2nd Class
Brewsters Law)

Dr. Rajanikanta Parida

Dept of physics, ITER
SOA University
Outline: Chapter 33 The Nature and Propagation of Light Dr. Rajanikanta Parida/ITER/SOA University

1. Write the laws of reflection and refraction.

Ans. Laws of Reflection are
i) The incident, reflected, and refracted rays and the normal to the surface, all lie in the same
plane.
ii) Angle of incident (a) = Angle of reflection (r)
Laws of and Refraction are
i) The incident, refracted rays and the normal to the surface, all lie in the same plane.
ii) Snells Law:
When, light passes from a medium of index of refraction na into a
second medium of index of refraction nb , then
n sin constant n a sina n bsinb
sin a n b

sin b n a
This is called Snells Law.
Where, a = angle incident and b = angle of refraction
If 1st medium is air and the 2nd is any medium with refractive index n.
then
sin a n
n
sin b 1
2. What will be the direction of the refracted ray in the following cases?
i) If nb > na ii) If nb < na, iii) If nb = na,
Ans. Figure shows three important cases:
i) If nb > na
The ray entering the material from smaller to larger index, the
refracted ray bends toward the normal.
a > b
va > vb ( v = velocity of light in any medium)
ii) If na > nb
The ray entering the material from larger to smaller index, the
refracted ray bends away from the normal.
b > a
vb > va ( v = velocity of light in any medium)
iii) If na = nb
The ray incident along the normal does not bend, regardless of the
materials.
a = 0 and b = 0.
vb = va
3. Which of the following parameters do not change during refraction?
i) Frequency ii) velocity iii) wavelength change.
Ans. During refraction, the frequency does not change on passing through a surface, but velocity and
wavelength change.
va vb
fa = and fb =
a b

va v va
But, f a = f b Thus, = b = a
a b vb b
2
Outline: Chapter 33 The Nature and Propagation of Light Dr. Rajanikanta Parida/ITER/SOA University

Again during refraction, the velocity of light becomes slower in optically denser medium. Such that,
n v = constant n a va = n b v b
nb v
= a a
na vb b
4. What is total internal reflection?
Ans:
If the angle of incident for the light moving from denser medium to rarer
medium is such that the angle of refraction is 900 i.e the ray emerges
tangent to the surface, then this angle of incident is called critical angle
(crit)
If incident is greater than the critical angle ( a > crit) then the ray reflected
back towards the same medium. This is called the total internal reflection
i.e Thus no ray get refracted if the angle of incident ray in denser medium
is more than the critical angle.
Example of Total internal reflection:
(i) A Porro prism
As an example, consider glass with index of refraction n = 1.52. If light
propagating within this glass encounters a glassair interface, the critical angle
is
1
sin crit 0.658 crit 41.10
1.52
If the incident beam is oriented as shown, total internal reflection occurs on the
45 faces (because, for a glassair interface, crit = 41.10).

(ii) Fiber optics

The light is trapped in the rod if all the angles of incidence (such as , , and )
exceed the critical angle.
5. What is Malus law of polarization?
Ans:
If an unpolarized light is allowed to pass through a polarizer then
the intensity of transmitted light becomes I0/2. Where, I0 is the
intensity of unpolarized light.
Now, if a second polarizer (the analyzer) at angle relative to the
first further reduces the intensity to I. This is given by
I = I0 cos2.
This is known as Maluss law: Figure below shows a polarizer and
an analyzer
6. State Brewsters Law of polarization?
Ans: When light is incident at the polarizing angle p (Brewsters angle),
the reflected light is linearly polarized and the reflected ray is
perpendicular to the refracted ray. Here we get Polarization due
to reflection.
Thus at polarizing angle p we have
p + b = 90.

3
Outline: Chapter 33 The Nature and Propagation of Light Dr. Rajanikanta Parida/ITER/SOA University

sin p nb
From Snells law we have, = n a sin p = n b sin b
sin b na
nb
n a sin p = n bsin (90 - p ) n a sin p = n bcos p tan p =
na
n
p = tan -1 b
na
If 1st medium is air and the 2nd is any medium with refractive index n. then
n
p = tan -1 p = tan -1n
1

Test Your Understanding of Section 33.2

You are standing on the shore of a lake. You spot a tasty fish swimming some distance below the lake
surface.
(a) If you want to spear the fish, should you aim the spear
(i) above, (ii) below, or (iii) directly at the apparent position of the fish?
(b) If instead you use a high-power laser to simultaneously kill and cook the fish, should you aim the
laser
(i) above, (ii) below, or (iii) directly at the apparent position of the fish?
Answers: (a) (ii), (b) (iii)

As shown in the figure, light rays coming from the fish bend away
from the normal when they pass from the water (n = 1.33) into the
air (n = 1.0).
As a result, the fish appears to be higher in the water than it actually
is.
Hence you should aim a spear below the apparent position of the
fish.
If you use a laser beam, you should aim at the apparent position of the fish: The beam of laser light takes
the same path from you to the fish as ordinary light takes from the fish to you (though in the opposite
direction).
Test Your Understanding of Section 33.3
In which of the following situations is there total internal reflection?
(i) Light propagating in water (n = 1.33) strikes a waterair interface at an incident angle of 70

(ii) light propagating in glass (n = 1.52) strikes a glasswater interface at an incident angle of 70

(iii) light propagating in water strikes a waterglass interface at an incident angle of 70.
Answers: (i), (ii)
1
(i) sin crit crit 48.80
1.33
Since angle of incident a (700) > crit (48.80), the total internal reflection will take place.
(ii) Light travelling from glass (n = 1.52) to water (n = 1.33), i.e from denser to rarer medium.
n b 1.33
sin crit crit 610
n a 1.52
Since angle of incident a (700) > crit (610), the total internal reflection will take place.
4
Outline: Chapter 33 The Nature and Propagation of Light Dr. Rajanikanta Parida/ITER/SOA University

(iii) Light travelling from water (n = 1.33) to glass (n = 1.52), i.e from rarer to denser medium. So the
total internal reflection cannot occur for any incident angle.
Test Your Understanding of Section 33.5
You are taking a photograph of a sunlit high-rise office building. In order to minimize the reflections from
the buildings windows, you place a polarizing filter on the camera lens. How should you orient the filter?
(i) with the polarizing axis vertical;
(ii) with the polarizing axis horizontal;
(iii) either orientation will minimize the reflections just as well;
(iv) neither orientation will have any effect.
Answer: (ii)
The sunlight reflected from the windows of the high-rise building is partially polarized in the vertical
direction, since each window lies in a vertical plane. The Polaroid filter in front of the lens is oriented with
its polarizing axis perpendicular to the dominant direction of polarization of the reflected light.

Example Problem:
Example 33.1 : Reflection and refraction
In Figure, material a is water and material b is glass with
index of refraction 1.52. The incident ray makes an angle 600
of with the normal; find the directions of the reflected and
refracted rays.
Solution:
Angle of incident (a)= 60
Angle of reflection (r) = Angle of incident (a) = 60
na = 1.332, nb = 1.52
Using Snells law we get,
na sin a = nb sin b
na 1.33
Sin b = Sin a Sin b Sin600 0.758
nb 1.52
b = Sin -1 0.758 49.30

Example 33.5 : Two polarizers in combination

In Fig. the incident unpolarized light has intensity
I0 . Find the intensities transmitted by the first and
second polarizers if the angle between the axes of
the two filters is 300

The incident light is unpolarized, so the intensity

of the linearly polarized light transmitted by the
first polarizer is I0/2
From Maluss law, we have,

5
Outline: Chapter 33 The Nature and Propagation of Light Dr. Rajanikanta Parida/ITER/SOA University

I = I max cos 2
I0
I= cos 2 300
2
I 3
I= 0
2 4
3
I = I0
8

Exercise Problem:
33.21: A ray of light is traveling in a glass cube that is totally immersed in water. You find that if the ray is
incident on the glasswater interface at an angle to the normal larger than 48.70, no light is
refracted into the water. What is the refractive index of the glass?

Solution: Here, crit = 48.70

Using Snells Law,

n a sin crit = n b sinb n a sin 48.70 = 1.33 sin 900

n a = 1.77
33.27 Unpolarized light with intensity I0 is incident on two polarizing filters. The axis of the first filter
makes an angle of 600 with the vertical, and the axis of the second filter is horizontal. What is
the intensity of the light after it has passed through the second filter?
Solution:
The first polarizer filters out half the incident light. The fraction filtered out by the second polarizer
depends on the angle between the axes of the two filters.
The incident light is unpolarized, so the intensity of the linearly polarized light transmitted by the first
polarizer is I 0
2
From Maluss law, we have,
I0 I 3 3
I = I max cos 2 I= cos 2 300 I = 0 I = I 0
2 2 4 8
I = 0.375 I0