Homework Assignment #4
Refraction and Snell's Law
What you will learn from this section
- What happens to light when it goes from one medium to
another
- The law of refraction- Snell's Law
- How to apply Snell's law to problems where light goes from one
medium to another
- How Snell's law leads to Total Internal Reflection (TIR)
- How to calculate the critical angle for reflection
- Optical fiber and total internal reflection
- optics vocabulary for this section:
- refraction
- index of refraction
- critical angle
- TIR
- dispersion
- Fresnel reflection
How to approach this material
- Read Chapter 3, Geometric Optics, from pages 20- page 30
(Pages 31-33 are optional). Pay particular attention to the
examples for Snell's law and Total Internal Reflection.
- Read the additional notes in this folder on change of
wavelength in a medium, and the two additional Snell's law
examples
- Work through the tutorial on angles and the sine function
(trigonometry) if you need to. Instructions for using the sine
(sin) function on your calculator may be found in the
tutorial.
- Visit these web sites:
- Do the homework problems in this folder.
- The lab experiment this week is to find the index of
refraction of gelatin (Jello).
If you have questions
- Send an email
- Post a question in the discussion forum
- Talk with a mentor, or another student (we learn best when we
help each other!)
- Stop by the Virtual Classroom during posted office hours
When you are finished.
- Email your homework to me
- Check the calendar for the due date for the lab.