You are provided with a glass block, plane mirror, and optical pins.
(b)i. Explain the term refractive index and give a mathematical expression for it in terms of wavelength.
ii. State the conditions necessary for total internal reflection to occur for a given pair of media.
Practical: refraction through a glass block with a mirror on face AB
For each angle of incidence \(i = 10^{\circ},20^{\circ},30^{\circ},40^{\circ},50^{\circ}\) the emergent ray is located by no-parallax pins, and the angles \(\theta\) and \(e\) (and the lateral displacement \(d\)) are measured. Then \(m = \sin e\) and \(n = \cos\!\left(\dfrac{\theta}{2}\right)\) are evaluated and tabulated with the block width \(W\).
Expected results. A graph of \(m\) (vertical) against \(n\) (horizontal) is a straight line; read the slope \(s\) and evaluate \(q = 2Ws\).
Two precautions:
- Pins were fixed vertically and well separated, and the outline traced exactly, so the rays could be drawn accurately.
- Viewing was done to remove parallax between the pins and the images, using a sharp pencil for all lines.
(b)(i) Refractive index is the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum (or air) to its speed in the medium; equivalently, for a pair of media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction. In terms of wavelength, since frequency is unchanged on refraction,
\[ n = \frac{\lambda_{1}}{\lambda_{2}} \]
the ratio of the wavelengths in the first and second media.
(b)(ii) Conditions for total internal reflection: light must pass from a denser to a less dense medium, and the angle of incidence in the denser medium must be greater than the critical angle.