Science - Light, Reflection, Refraction

For today's session, we will be doing an experiment involving light, refraction, and reflection. 

When light travels through air and passes into a glass block it slows done and bends inwards towards normal. 

When light travels through a glass block exits that block and enters air it speeds up and bends outwards from normal. 

Our aim is to investigate how light is affected by changing the substance it is traveling through.

The equipment you will need is:

• Ray box
• Power source
• glass or perspex block
• single slit ray slide

Method:

Collect the equipment from your teacher, and set them up to produce a single beam of light.

Place the glass block in the shaded area.

Place the ray box at the top of the page and shine the beam so it travels along the 10 degrees line to the center of the protractor (this would be the angle of incidence).

Read the angle the light leaves the glass block at (this is your angle of refraction)

Continue the investigation so you can complete the table.

You will need a photo like this:

This photo is to show what angle our light would be going in.

Here are the results for Part A:

Angle of incidence	Angle of refraction
10 degrees	7 degrees
20 degrees	15 degrees
30 degrees	20 degrees
40 degrees	25 degrees

Here are the results for Part B:

Angle of incidence	Angle of refraction
10 degrees	8 degrees
20 degrees	12 degrees
30 degrees	20 degrees
40 degrees	25 degrees

Refraction through lenses:

Our aim in this experiment is t investigate how different types of lenses refract light (Concave and Convex lenses).

Equipment:

• The single or triple slit ray slide
• Lightbox
• Power source
• Concave and Convex lens

Method:

• Set up a lightbox single or tripe slit ray slide and your power source.
• Place the convex lens in the space below. Place the lightbox at the top of the page and shine the single or triple light ray directly at the lens. Make sure the central light rays hit the lens at 90 degrees as indicated in the diagram.
• Carefully trace the direction of the incoming and refracting rays.
• Repeat using the concave lens.

You will need a photo or diagram like this:

Conclusion:

When light passes through a convex lens, the rays all move away (diverge) from each other. One use of this kind of lens is a peephole is a door or the fisheye lens.

When light passes through a concave lens, the rays all move outward (converge) to each other. One use of this lens is in a camera to focus the light onto the film or digital sensor. Also a magnifying glass.