AIM

The aim is to determine the refractive index of a glass block using Snell’s Law.

APPARATUS
- 1 Glass block
- 4 Optical pins
- 1 Protractor
- 1 Drawing paper
- A pair of compass

DIAGRAM
THEORY
When a ray of light traveling through a transparent medium encounters a boundary leading into
another medium part of gthe ray is reflected and part enters the second medium. The ray that
enters the second medium is bent at the boundary and said to be refracted. The incident ray, the
refracted fray, the reflected ray, and the normal at the point of incidence all lie in the same
plane.Consider AB as the surface of the glass block. NOM is the normal to the surface. Let ROB
be the incident ray and OQ the refracted ray. With centre O and radius RO a circle is drawn
cutting the refracted ray at Q. RP and QS are perpendiculars drawn from R and Q respectively
onto the normal NOM.

From the diagram

sin i = and sin r =

therefore

but RO = QO

PROCEDURE
The glass block was placed on the white sheet of paper pinned to the drawing board. The edges
of the glass block were traced and the corners labeled ABCD as shown in the figure above. Then
a normal NOM was drawn. An angle of incidence i=200 was drawn and two pins P1 and P2 were
pushed into the paper along the line to represent the incident ray. The glass block was carefully
replace on the paper. The glass block was looked through along the side CD to find the images of
P1 and P2. While looking, two pins P3 and P4 were pushed into the paper so that they were in a
straight line with the images of P1 and P2. The glass block was removed and P3 and P4 were
joined to meet the side CD to meet at Z. This is the emergent ray. Z and O were joined to
indicate the refracted ray.

With centre O and a suitable radius, a circle was drawn cutting the incident ray and the refracted
ray at R and Q respectively. Using set squares, perpendiculars RP and QS were drawn onto the
normal. RP, QS and the angle of refraction were measured.

The experiment was repeated for the values i = 400, 500, 600, 700

The readings were tabulated and a graph with RP as ordinate and QS as abscissa was plotted.

The slope was calculated and its significance indicated.

Another graph was plotted with Y as ordinate and tan r as abscissa. The slope was calculated and
its significance indicated.

TABLE OF RESULTS (OBSERVATION)

i/0 r/0 Y/cm RP/cm QS/cm tan r
20 12 1.4 0.7 0.4 0.2126
40 25 3.1 1.3 0.9 0.4663
50 30 3.8 1.6 1.0 0.5774
60 34 4.5 1.7 1.1 0.6745
70 39 5.5 1.6 1.0 0.8098

Width of the glass (d) = 6.7cm

A GRAPH OF RP AGAINST QS
2

1.8
y = 1.5598x

1.6

1.4

1.2
RP/cm

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
QS/cm
CALCULATION

A GRAPH OF Y AGAINST tan r

6

y = 6.6948x

4
Y/cm

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

tan r
CALCULATION

DISCUSSION
From the graph produced, that is, the graph of RP against QS, a straight line was produced that
intercepted the axis at (0,0). The slope produce by a graph of RP against QS will produce a value
that is equivalent to according to the theory. is referred to as the refractive index of a
medium (in this case the medium is glass). The slope produced is equal to 1.56 and based on
research in books the refractive index of glass is equal to 1.5. So, it can be observed that the
theoretical value and the experimental value are nearly equal.

From the second graph produced, that is, the graph of Y against tan r, a straight line was also
produced that intercepted the axis at (0,0). The slope produced by the graph of Y against tan r
would also produce a value that is equivalent to the side AB (d). d is the width of the glass block.
The slope produced is equal to 6.67cm and using the ruler during the experiment, the width of
the glass block found to be 6.7cm. So, it can also be observed here that the calculated value of d
was found to be approximately equal to the measured value.

SOURCES OF ERROR
1. The pins P1 and P2 were not placed precisely erect but must have been slightly tilted and
this affected the exact placement of pins P3 and P4 in line with the image produced.
2. Due to cracks, dent and scratches on the edges of the glass and on the sides of the glass,
there was difficulty in seeing the images produced and placing the pins P3 and P4 at the
right spot.

PRECAUTIONS
1. During the experiment all the pins were carefully placed so as not to move the glass block
since that could have produced false reading on the white paper
2. It was also made sure that the pins P3 and P4 were pinned down once on the white paper
for each angle of incidence so as to avoid being confused when join the two points.
CONCLUSION
Using Snell’s law, the refractive index of glass was found to be 1.5