PHYSICS PROJECT

TOPIC – RAY OPTICS

SESSION – 2024-25

NAME – Harsh Kumar

CLASS – XII – F
UID - 7932871
SUBJECT TEACHER – Mr. Anurag Bhushan
SCHOOL – City Montessori School

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 Acknowledgement

I’d like to express my greatest gratitude to the people who have helped
& supported me throughout my project. I will treasure the knowledge
imparted to me by Mr. Anurag Bhushan, my grateful thanks to him for
the able teaching and guidance, his continuous support for the project,
from initial advice & encouragement to this day.

Special thanks of mine goes to my colleague who helped me in

completing the project by giving interesting ideas, thoughts & made
this project easy and accurate.

I wish to thanks my parents for their undivided support & interest who
inspired me & encouraged me to go my own way, without which I
would be unable to complete my project.

At last but not the least I want to thanks my friends who appreciated
me for my work & motivated me and finally to God who made all the
things possible!!!!

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 Index

1. Introduction To Ray Optics

2. Newton’s Corpuscular theory
3. FOUR LAWS USED IN THE STUDY OF GEOMETRICAL OPTICS
4. Apparent Depth
5. Speed of Light
6. Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
7. Dispersion and Prisms
8. Some Natural Phenomena due to Sunlight
9. REFLECTION OF LIGHT BY A PLANE MIRROR
10. REFLECTION FROM A PLANE MIRROR
11. REFLECTION FROM A SPHERICAL SURFACE
12. RELATION BETWEEN F AND R
13. IMPORTANT RAY PATHS
14. IMAGE FORMATION BY SPHERICAL MIRRORS
15. The LENS
16. Refraction from a spherical surface
17. LENS MAKER’S FORMULA
18. Ray Diagrams
19. Power Of A Lens
20. DEFECTS OF IMAGES
21. EYEPIECES
22. Comparison between Ramsden’s and Huygen’s Eye Pieces
23. BIBLIOGRAPHY

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 Introduction To Ray Optics

Optics is a branch of physical science dealing with the propagation and

behavior of light. In a general sense, light is that part of the
electromagnetic spectrum that extends from X rays to microwaves and
includes the radiant energy that produces the sensation of vision
(Electromagnetic Radiation, Energy; Spectrum, X Ray). The study of
optics is divided into geometrical optics and physical optics, and out of
these branches, Geometrical Optics or Ray Optics are discussed below.

The Ray Optics, uses the geometry of straight lines to account for
macroscopic phenomenon like rectilinear propagation, reflection,
refraction, etc. That is why Ray Optics is called Geometrical Optics
Light form of energy gives sensation of sight. Study of all aspects of
light related to rectilinear propagation of light is Ray Optics. Lenses and
mirrors using principles of reflection and refraction are used in the
study of Ray Optics.

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 Newton’s corpuscular theory

A source of light continuously emits corpuscles in all directions. These

particles are elastic and travel in straight lines with an enormous
velocity. Corpuscles produce sensation of vision when they fall on the
retina of the eye. Using it, Newton was able to explain the laws of
reflection and refraction, but this theory couldn’t explain the
phenomenon of interference, diffraction, polarization etc.
The following are certain conclusions of corpuscular theory which are
against the experimentally observed facts.

i) This theory assumes that the source of light looses mass as it

emits corpuscles; but no such decrement in mass of the
source of light is detected.

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 ii) According to this theory the velocity of light in denser
medium should be greater than that in air. This assumption
was proved wrong by Foucault’s experiment conducted to
measure the speed of light.
iii) This theory proposes that velocity of the corpuscles
increases as the temperature of the source increases.
Experiments have proved that the velocity of light is
independent of temperature.

Newton noticed that reflection and refraction could only be possible

if light is made up of particles (or, as he called them, corpuscles). His
theory of light states that light continuously emits small particles or
corpuscles that seem to change velocity when they pass from one
medium to another with different densities. Therefore, the speed of
light changes depending on the density of the medium it passes
through.

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 FOUR LAWS USED IN THE
STUDY OF GEOMETRICAL
OPTICS

1. Law of Rectilinear propagation of light :

The rectilinear propagation of light is a phenomenon which tells that

light travels in a straight line. It can change its direction only when
either it is reflected from a surface or change its medium of
propagation, i.e. refraction. This concept of rectilinear propagation of
light is used to understand the various optical phenomena.

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 2. Law of Independence of light rays :
It states that rays do not disturb each other upon intersection.

3. Laws Of Reflection :

The law of reflection of light states that the reflected ray lies in the
same plane with the incident ray and with the normal to the reflecting
surface at the point of incidence, the angle of reflection being equal to
the angle of incidence. The angle of incidence(i) is the angle between
the normal and the incident ray, while the angle of reflection(r) is the
angle between the normal and the reflected ray.

If the beam of parallel rays falls on a flat smooth surface, a parallel

beam will be obtained in the rejection. If a surface is not smooth for
given rays, diffuse reflection is observed since rays incident on such a
surface are reflected in all directions.

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 4. Laws Of Refraction :

The law of refraction, which is generally known as Snell’s law, govems

the behaviour of light-rays as they propagate across a sharp interface
between two transparent medium.
(i)The incident ray, the refracted ray and normal to the interface at the
point of incidence lie in the same plane i.e., they all are co-planar.

(ii)The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence (i) and that of the
angle of refraction (r) is a constant for any two given media.

This is known as Snell's Law.

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This constant is known as the refractive index of the second medium (in
which refracted ray propagates) with respect to the first medium (in
which incidence ray propagates)
Therefore equation (i) can be written as

The refractive index of a substance relative to vacuum (a ray passes

through the vacuum to the given medium) is called absolute refractive
index of the substance. If μ1 and μ2 are the absolute refractive index of
first and the second media respectively.
When light propagate through a series of layers of different media as
shown in the figure, then the Snell’s law may be written as :-

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 Apparent Depth

An object placed in a denser medium, when viewed from rarer

medium appears to be at a lesser depth than its real depth due to
refraction of light. Moving into the air, they refracted and refracted
rays come to the eye. If the object is at a depth h in the water, an
observer from the air sees his character at a lower depth h’. It is shown
when the observer looks in the direction of the normal to the surface of
the water (or at a smaller angle relative to the normal), the real and
apparent depths are related by the equation:

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If we look at a straight rod partially submerged in water, it appears to
bend at the surface. The reason behind this curious effect is that the
image of the rod inside the water forms a little closer to the surface
than the actual position of the rod, so it does not line up with the part
of the rod that is above the water. The same phenomenon explains why
a fish in water appears to be closer to the surface than it actually is.

Speed of Light

The rate at which the light travels in free space is called the Speed of
light. For example, light travels 30% slower in water when compared to
vacuum.

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 Total Internal Reflection (TIR)

The picture below shows rays of monochromatic light from a light

source in water incident on the interface between the water and air.
For ray a, which is perpendicular to the interface, part of the light
reflects at the interface and the rest travels through it with no change
in direction. For rays b through d, which have progressively larger
angles of incidence at the interface, there are also both reflection and
refraction at the interface. As the angle of incidence increases, the
angle of refraction increases; for ray e it is 90”, which means that the
refracted ray points directly along the interface. The angle of incidence
giving this situation is called the critical angle a. For angles of incidence
larger than a, such as for ray f, there is no refracted ray and all the light
is reflected; this effect is called total internal reflection.

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Total internal reflection has found many applications in medical
technology.
For example, a physician view the interior of an artery of a patient by
running two thin bundles of optical fibers through the chest wall and
into an artery. Light introduced at the outer end of one bundle
undergoes repeated total internal reflection within the fibers so that,
even though the bundle provides a curved path, most of the light ends
up exiting the other end and illuminating the interior of the artery.
Some of the light reflected from the interior then comes back up the
second bundle in a similar way, to be detected and converted to an
image on a monitor’s screen for the physician to view.

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 Dispersion and Prisms

The dependence of the index of refraction on wavelength is called

dispersion. Because n is a function of wavelength, Snell’s law indicates
that the angle of refraction made when light enters a material depends
on the wavelength of the light. The index of refraction for a material
usually decreases with increasing wavelength. This means that violet
light (x=400 nm) refracts more than red light (x=650 nm) when passing
from air into a material. To understand the effects of dispersion on
light, consider what happens when light strikes a prism. A ray of light of
a single wavelength that is incident on the prism from the left emerges

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bent away from its original direction of travel by an angle 5, called the
angle of deviation.
Angle of deviation is increased with index of refraction. Now suppose a
beam of white light (a combination of all visible wavelengths) is
incident on a glass prism.

The glass prism split the light into a band of seven colours on his wall.
This band of colours represent ‘spectrum’. The order of colours from
the lower end of spectrum is violet (V), indigo (I), blue (B), green (G),
yellow (Y), orange (O), and red (R).

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 Some Natural Phenomena due to
Sunlight

The Rainbow:

Primary Rainbow :- Rainbow is formed due to two times refraction and

one time total internal reflection in water drop present in atmosphere.
Sunlight is first refracted as it enters a raindrop, which causes the
different wavelengths of white light to separate. Longer wavelength of
light (red) are bent the least while the shorter wavelength (violet) are
bent the most. Next, these component rays strike the inner surface of
the water droplet and gets internally reflected if the angle of incidence
is greater than the critical angle. The reflected light is again refracted as
it comes out of the drop. It is found that violet light emerges at an angle
40° related to the incoming sunlight and red light emerges at an angle
of 42°.

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Secondary Rainbow :- When light rays undergoes two internal
refraction inside the rain drop, a secondary raindrop is formed. Its
intensity is less compared to primary due to four stem process. Violet
ray makes an angle of 53° and red light rays makes 50° with related to
incoming sunlight. The order of colours is reversed.

Rayleigh Scattering:
The amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth power
of the wavelength. This is known as Rayleigh scattering.

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Why Sky Is Blue?
As sunlight travels through the earth’s atmosphere, it gets scattered
(changes its direction) by the atmospheric particles. Light of shorter
wavelengths is scattered much more than Light of longer wavelengths.
The amount of scattering is inversely proportional to the fourth power
of the wavelength. This is known as Rayleigh scattering. Hence, the
bluish colour predominates in a clear sky, since blue has a shorter
wavelength than red and is scattered much more strongly. In fact, violet
gets scattered even more than blue, having a shorter wavelength. But
since our eyes are more sensitive to blue than violet, we see the sky
blue.

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 REFLECTION OF LIGHT BY A
PLANE MIRROR

The following properties of a plane mirror are worth mentioning:-

1. A plane mirror can be used to deviate light from one direction to
another. The angle AOM made by incident ray AO with MM| is
known as the glancing angle (g) with the mirror.

Hence the angle of deviation of a ray by a plane mirror is twice

the glancing angle or a ray is deviated through an angle.

2. When plane mirror is rotated through a certain angle θ, then the

reflected ray turns through an angle 2θ.
3. If the plane mirror moves away or towards an object by a distance
d, then the image moves away or towards the object by a distance
2d.

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 4. If the mirror moves with speed ‘u’ towards or away from a fixed
object, then the image appears to move towards or away from
the object with speed 2u.
5. If the object moves with speed ‘u’ towards mirror. The image also
moves towards the mirror with speed ‘u’. The speed of the image
relative to the object in this case is 2u.
6. The image formed by plane mirror is virtual, erect and laterally
inverted.
7. The magnification of plane mirror is 1 i.e., size of object = size of
image.
8. The left side of an object appears as the right side of the image.
9. Power of a plane mirror is zero.
10. When two plane mirrors are kept facing to each other at an
angle and an object is placed between them, multiple images of
the object are formed as of multiple successive reflection.

11. The minimum size of the mirror required to be fixed on the

wall of a room, so that an observer in the middle of the room can
see full image of wall behind him is 1/3 of the height of the wall.
12. Reflection from a denser medium causes a phase difference
of π.

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871

 REFLECTION FROM A PLANE
MIRROR
Almost everybody is familiar with the image formed by a plane mirror.
If the object is real, the image formed by a plane mirror is virtual, erect
and at the same distance from the mirror. The ray diagram of the image
of a point object and of an extended object is as shown below.

REFLECTION FROM A SPHERICAL

SURFACE
There are two types of spherical mirrors, concave and convex. If the
light is reflected from the inside surface of a sphere then it is called
Concave mirror. If the light is reflected from the outer surface of a
sphere then it is called convex mirror as shown in fig.

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 RELATION BETWEEN F AND R:

A ray AM parallel to the principal axis of a concave mirror of small

aperture is reflected through the principal focus F. If C is the centre of
curvature, CM is normal to the mirror at M because the radius of a
spherical surface is perpendicular to the surface.

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 IMPORTANT RAY PATHS
Of all the possible rays we could draw from a single point on an object.
There are four rays that are particularly useful in locating the
corresponding image point.
1. A ray passing parallel to principle axis after reflection from the
mirror passes or appear to pass through its focus.

2. A ray initially passing through or directed towards focus after

reflection from the mirror becomes parallel to the principal axis.
3. A ray initially passing through or directed towards centre of
curvature, after reflection from the mirror retraces its path.

4. Incident and reflected rays at the pole of a mirror are symmetrical

about the principal axis (As for pole principle axis acts as normal
and from laws of reflection i = r)

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 IMAGE FORMATION BY
SPHERICAL MIRRORS
(i) For CONCAVE mirror:

(ii) For CONVEX mirror:

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 The LENS
A lens is a piece of transparent material bounded by two refracting
surface out of which at least one is curved. If thickness of a lens is small
and its curved surface is spherical then lens is known as thin spherical
lens.

Refraction from a spherical

surface:
Consider two transparent media having refractive index μ1 and μ2.
Where the boundary between the two media is a spherical surfaces of
radius R. We assume that μ1 < μ1. Let us consider a single ray leaving
point O and focusing at point I.

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 LENS MAKER’S FORMULA
Lens is a piece of transparent material with its sides ground to spherical
form. The spherical surfaces may be convex or concave. A biconvex
lens is known as converging lens. A biconcave lens is known as
diverging lens. Sometimes lenses may have a plane and a spherical
surface i.e., we can have Plano-convex or Plano-concave lenses also.
The line joining the centers of curvature of the two surfaces of a lens is
called ‘principal axis’.
The rays traveling parallel to the principal axis’.
The rays traveling parallel to the principal axis when incident on one of
the spherical surfaces converge at a point on the other side on the
principal axis after refraction. This, point is called ‘principal focus’. A
lens has one principal focus on either side of it.
The distance between the optical center and principal focus is called
‘focal length’.
For a thin lens the relation among the object distance, image distance
and focal length is given by

Usually a lens is ground to some specific focal length (f) using glass
material of known refractive index (μ). Then the radii of curvature of
the spherical surfaces R1, R2 are decided according to the equation.

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 Ray Diagrams
For Convex Lens:
(i)When object lies at infinity: The real image is formed at the focus (F)
of the lens as shown in fig. The size of the image is very small.

(ii)When object lies between infinity and 2F: The real, inverted and
diminished image is formed between F and 2F as shown in fig.

(iii)When object lies at 2F : The real and inverted image is formed at 2F.
The size of the image is same as that of the object as shown in fig.

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(iv)When object lies between F and 2F : The real inverted and enlarged
image is formed between 2F and infinity as shown in fig.

(v)When object lies at F : The real , inverted and highly enlarged image
is formed at infinity as shown in fig.

(vi)When object lies between C and F: The virtual, erect and highly
enlarged image is formed on the same side as that of the object (shown
in fig)

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For Concave Lens:
The image A’B’ of the object AB formed by concave lens is virtual, erect
and diminished. It is formed on the same side as that of the object as
shown in the fig (Always virtual and diminished image formed by
concave lens).

Power Of A Lens

Power of a lens is defined as the reciprocal of the focal length of the

lens expressed in meters.

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 DEFECTS OF IMAGES

Lens formula and lens maker’s formula are derived on the assumptions
that incident rays make small angles with principal axis, and the
aperture of the lens is small. These assumptions are not valid when
optical instruments such as telescopes and compound microscopes are
to be designed.
Optical instruments generally are assembled using lenses with very
wide apertures enabling them to collect more light to produce bright
images of those objects that are much farther from the axis (of lenses).
The deviations from the assumptions made above cause defects in
formation of images.

The defects in images may be with regard to size, shape, position and
colour as compared to the object. These defects in images produced by
lenses are called aberrations. Aberrations are not due to the defective
grinding of the lenses. Despite their perfect sphericity, the defects do
exist. The aberrations produced in images are classified as i)
Monochromatic and ii) Chromatic aberrations.

Monochromatic aberrations:
These are the defects produced by a lens, where a monochromatic light
(having a single wavelength) is used.

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Monochromatic aberrations are further classified as
a) Spherical aberration b) Coma c) Astigmatism d) Curvature
and e) Distortion
Except spherical aberration the others are out of the scope of this
curriculum.

Spherical Aberration:
Face of the lens that is exposed to light is called aperture. If aperture is
large, light rays incident at different portions (zones) of the aperture,
refract diversely. Rays close to principal axis are called paraxial rays.
These rays converge at a farther point (IP) from the lens after refraction
than the marginal or peripheral rays, falling near the edges of the lens.
The marginal rays converge at a closer point (lm) from the lens.
Thus the image extends between point Im and IP, and a sharp point
image is not possible for a point object. This defect is called spherical
aberration. The distance between Im and IP is the measure of the
spherical aberration, and is called the longitudinal (axial) spherical
aberration.

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The aperture of a lens can be mentally divided as annular rings (zones)
of different radii. It has been shown that the longitudinal spherical
aberration is proportional to the square of the radius of the zone. Also,
spherical aberration increases as the square of the deviation (distance
of the object ray above the axis of the lens) of the object ray from the
axis of the lens. Spherical aberration of a converging lens (convex) is
considered positive and of a diverging lens (concave) negative.

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 EYEPIECES

Prototype optical instruments such as telescopes and microscopes had

one object lens and one eye lens only. Single lens forms images with
chromatic and spherical aberrations. So, in designing telescopes and
microscopes for practical purposes, combination of lenses are used for
both objective and eye lenses to minimize chromatic and spherical
aberrations. A combination of lenses used as an eye lens is known as
eyepiece.

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An eye piece mainly consists of a field lens and an eye lens. Field lens
and eye lens are arranged in such a way that spherical and chromatic
aberrations are considerably reduced or eliminated.
Field lens increases the field of view and the eye lens acts as a
magnifier.
We consider two eyepieces viz Ramsden’s eyepiece and Huygens’
eyepiece.

Construction of Ramsden’s eyepiece:

This eye piece consists of two plano-convex lenses of equal focal length
(f), separated by a distance (d) equal to 2f/3. The lenses are arranged
on a common axis so that their convex surfaces face each other. This
type of orientation of the lenses minimizes spherical aberration as the
refracting surfaces of the lenses share deviation equally. The eyepiece
is placed beyond the image (I) formed by the objective.

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The equivalent focal length of the combination is calculated by the
relation.

Since the focal length of the eyepiece is 3f/4, the image (I) formed by
the objective must be at a distance of f/3 in front of field lens (L1). This
image serves as an object for the field lens and its image I1 (virtual) is
formed at a distance of f/3 in front of field lens. I1 lies in the focal
plane of the eye lens (L2) and it acts as an object for the eye lens which
forms its image at infinity. In this eyepiece, the cross-wires are placed
in the position of the real image I, formed by the objective i.e., at a
distance of f/4 in front of the field lens. Due to this reason the eyepiece
is referred to as positive eyepiece. A fine scale may be placed at this
point to take measurement pertaining to the image.

Advantages:
(i) Since cross wires are provided, this eyepiece is used for taking
measurements. As the scale and the image are magnified
proportionally, measurements would be trust worthy.

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 (ii) As convex surfaces are facing each other, the spherical
aberration is minimum because the total deviation is shared by
the four refracting surfaces.
Demerits:
This eye piece cannot totally eliminate chromatic aberration because
the distance ‘d’ (=2f/3) between the lenses is not equal to the average
of their focal lengths (f). If distance between the lenses were ‘f’,
chromatic aberration would totally be eliminated but any dust particles
on the field lens also be magnified and seen in sharp focus along with
the image which is an undesirable feature.

Construction of Huygen’s eyepiece:

This eyepiece consists of two plano-convex lenses of same glass
material. The focal length ratio of field and eye lens varies from 1.5 to
3. The two lenses are separated by a distance d equal to 2f on a
common axis and arranged with their convex faces toward the
objective.
The focal length (F) of equivalent lens is found by the formula.

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Demerits:
(i) Field of view of Huygens’ eyepiece is lower than that of Ramsden’s
eyepiece.
(ii) The measurements with Huygens’ eyepiece are not reliable because
image magnification and scale magnification (scale fixed to the cross –
wires) are not proportional. The image is magnified by both lenses
where as the scale is magnified by a single lens.

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 Comparison between Ramsden’s
and Huygen’s Eye Pieces

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. practically.com
2.brainly.com
3.physicsnotes.com
4.toppr.com
5.Wikipedia
6.quora.com
7.ISC Nootan Class 12th Physics Book

THANK
YOU

Harsh Kumar XII – F UID – 7932871