Apparatus Aim

pencil
scale,
etc. A slab. To
sheet refraction
observe
and
of
white

paper,

glass
lateral
slab, ACTIVITY
B-4
NO.
drawing deviation

board, ofa

two beam
thin of
but light
long incident
knitting
obliquely
needles,
metre a

on
glass a
 251
Underlying Principle
Refraction through a rectangular glass slab. Let PORS represent a glass slab as shown
in Fig. 11.8. Consider that a ray of light enters the glass slab along AE. IL means that light
is travelling from a rarer medium (.e., air) to glaSS which is adenser medium. Thus the
refracted ray EF bends towards the normal EN, making an angle r less than the angle i.
The ray EF while travelling through glass meets at the other face SR of the slab, and refracts
into air which is a rarer medium. It emerges out along FG, deviating away from the normal.
The ray FD is known as the emergent ray. The angle which the emergent ray makes with
the normal at the point of emergence is called the angle of mergence and is denoted by the
letter 'e'. It can be seen from Fig. 11.8 that
(a) the emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray, and
(6) though the emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray, it is laterally displaced by a
distance d from it.

N.
A

Air
8
Incident ray
P
Q

Glass

Ng

Refracted ray

Emergent ray Lateral

D
N Displacement
G

Fig. 11.8. Refraction of a ray of light through a glass slab.

Procedure
1. Fix the sheet of white paper on the drawing board with the help of cello-tape or drawing
pins. Put the glass slab on it and mark its boundary with a sharp pencil.
2. Remove the slab from the sheet and draw a straight line with the help of a metre scale
or a ruler intersecting the slab boundary at points B and E as shown in Fig. II.9. Put
the glass slab back on its drawn boundary.
3. Place one of the knitting needles, say PQ, along the line AB and look for its image on
the other side of the slab. Place the second needle RS in such a position that the needle
RS and the image of the needle PQ lie in the same straight line.
4. Draw a fine line along the neelle RS and remove the slab and the needle. You willfind
that the lines PQ and RS which represent the incident ray and the emergent rays,
respectively, are parallel to each other but are laterally displaced with respect to each
other.
5. Repeat this experiment by placing the slab breadthwise. The same type of observations
will be oblained with the only difference that though the emergent ray is parallel to the
incident ray, the lateral displacement d is directly proportional to the thickness r of the
slab traversed by the light.
252

Lateral
Displacement d

Fig. I1.9. Refraction of light through a glass slab.

Observation Table
Angle of incidence Angle of Lateral
(i) (degrees) emergence (e) degrees displacement (cm)

Along Length (i) 30°

(ii) 40°

Along Breadth (i) 30°

(ii) 40°

Conclusion
1. The ray of light emerging from a glass slab is parallel to the incident ray and is laterally
displaced.
thickness
2. The lateral displacement of the emergent ray increases with the increase in the
of the slab.

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