Certificate

This is to certify that Ms.Aditi Saxena of class XII has completed the

physics project entitled ‘Tracing the path of light through mirrors (plane)
lens (spherical) prism and glass slab ’ herself and under my guidance. The
progress of the project has been continuously reported and has been in my
knowledge consistently.

Mr. S.K. Vaishya

(P.G.T PHYSICS)

Kendriya Vidyalaya Indore

Principal

Mr. P. K. Beduye
 Acknowledgement

It gives me great pleasure to express my gratitude towards our physics

teacher Mr. S. K. Vaishya for her guidance, support and encouragement
throughout the duration of the project. Without her motivation and help the
successful completion of this project would not have been possible.

Aditi Saxena
 Index
1) Certificate
2) Acknowledgement
3) Objective
4) Introduction
5) Materials and Equipment
6) Theory
7) Experimental Procedure
8) Observation
9) Result
10)Precautions
11) Conclusion
12) Bibliography
 Tracing the path of
light through mirrors
(plane), lens (spherical),
prism and glass slab
 Introduction
Nature has endowed the human eye (retina) with the sensitivity to detect
electromagnetic waves within a small range of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Electromagnetic radiation belonging to this region of the spectrum
(wavelength of about 400 nm to 750 nm) is called light. It is mainly through
light and the sense of vision that we know and interpret the world around
us.
There are two things that we can intuitively mention about light from
common experience. First, that it travels with enormous speed and second,
that it travels in a straight line. It took some time for people to realise that
the speed of light is finite and measurable. Its presently accepted value in
vacuum is c = 2.99792458 × 108 m s–1. For many purposes, it suffices to take
c = 3 × 108 m s–1. The speed of light in vacuum is the highest speed
attainable in nature.

The intuitive notion that light travels in a straight line seems to contradict
what we have learnt in Chapter 8, that light is an electromagnetic wave of
wavelength belonging to the visible part of the spectrum. How to reconcile
the two facts? The answer is that the wavelength of light is very small
compared to the size of ordinary objects that we encounter commonly
(generally of the order of a few cm or larger). In this situation, as you will
learn in Chapter 10, a light wave can be considered to travel from one point
to another, along a straight line joining them. The path is called a ray of
light, and a bundle of such rays constitutes a beam of light

In this chapter, we consider the phenomena of reflection, refraction and

dispersion of light, using the ray picture of light. Using the basic laws of
reflection and refraction, we shall study the image formation by plane and
spherical reflecting and refracting surfaces. We then go on to describe the
construction and working of some important optical instruments, including
the human eye.
 Materials and Equipment
To do this experiment we will need the following materials and equipment:

 A box
 Concave lens
 Convex lens
 Plane mirror
 Prism
 Glass slab
 Incense stick
 Glue
 Laser light
 Theory
Reflection
We are familiar with the laws of reflection. The angle of reflection (i.e., the
angle between reflected ray and the normal to the reflecting surface or
the mirror) equals the angle of incidence (angle between incident ray and
the normal). Also that the incident ray, reflected ray and the normal to
the reflecting surface at the point of incidence lie in the same plane .
These laws are valid at each point on any reflecting surface whether plane
or curved. However, we shall restrict our discussion to the special case of
curved surfaces, that is, spherical surfaces. The normal in this case is to
be taken as normal to the tangent to surface at the point of incidence.
That is, the normal is along the radius, the line joining the centre of
curvature of the mirror to the point of incidence. We have already studied
that the geometric centre of a spherical mirror is called its pole while that
of a spherical lens is called its optical centre. The line joining the pole and
the centre of curvature of the spherical mirror is known as the principal
axis. In the case of spherical lenses, the principal axis is the line joining
the optical centre with its principal focus as you will see later.
Refraction
When a beam of light encounters another transparent medium, a part of
light gets reflected back into the first medium while the rest enters the
other. A ray of light represents a beam. The direction of propagation of
an obliquely incident ray of light that enters the other medium, changes
at the interface of the two media. This phenomenon is called refraction of
light. Snell experimentally obtained the following laws of refraction:

(i) The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the interface at
the point of incidence, all lie in the same plane.
(ii) The ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of angle of
refraction is constant. Remember that the angles of incidence (i ) and
refraction (r ) are the angles that the incident and its refracted ray make
with the normal, respectively.

Refraction Through a Prism

The passage of light through a triangular prism ABC. The angles of
incidence and refraction at the first face AB are i and r 1 , while the angle
of incidence (from glass to air) at the second face AC is r 2 and the angle
of refraction or emergence e. The angle between the emergent ray RS and
the direction of the incident ray PQ is called the angle of deviation, δ.
 Experimental Procedure
1. Take the box and attach the plane mirror on side of the box two mirror
on one side and one on other side such that the make a triangle

2. Now attach concave and convex mirror opposite to each other on the
edge of the box

3. Now light the incense stick and place the box inverted over it so that
smog create a medium to trace the path

4. RELFECTION
i) Now through the laser light throw a beam of light on the mirror
making ‘Z’
ii) Observe the path of light

5. REFRACTION
i) Pass the beam of laser light through concave lens and observe its path
ii) Pass the beam of laser light through convex lens and observe its path

6. REFRACTION through the GLASS SLAB

i) Place the glass slab in the box with smog
ii) Pass the beam of light through glass slab and observe its path

7. REFRACTION through the PRISM

i) place the prism in the box with smog

ii) pass the beam of light through the prism and observe the deviation in
the path of the light beam
 Observation
Reflection through plane mirror
Refraction through spherical lenses

1 Concave lens

2 Convex lens
Refraction through the Glass Salb

Light beam without glass slab

Light beam with slab

Refraction through prism
 Result
 Light gets reflect through shinning surface like mirror
 Concave lens diverge the light rays
 Convex mirror converge the light rays
 light rays get refract by glass prism
 light rays get refracted through the prism by angle of deviation
 Precaution
1. Switch off the lights of the room before performing the experiment
2. Box should be covered with smoke completely
3. Use laser light beam
4. Put prism and glass slab under the box before putting burning
incense stick under the box
 Conclusion
Refraction is the bending of a light or the way the light bends when entering
the eye to form an image on the retina.

An example of refraction is a bending of the sun's rays as they enter

raindrops, forming a rainbow.

An example of refraction is a prism.

A straw in a cup of water , and lens , all the example showsrefraction of the
light rays.

Reflection is the bouncing back of light rays from a shiny surface.

For example a mirror is an example of reflection.
 Bibliography
https://www.google.co.in/search?ei=5rdsWseFHYiHvQSK86DoAQ&q=exam
ple+of+reflection&oq=example+&gs_l=

http://ncert.nic.in/textbook/textbook.htm?leph2=1-7