Introduction: Optics and the speed of light
You can’t see in the dark. Light is a requirement for sight, and that’s because what you’re seeing is the light. This wasn’t always so obvious, and there were a variety of creative theories about how we see – including one that suggested the eyes emit rays that need to hit an object to see the object. But since vision is a consequence of light bouncing off something and entering your eye, we can understand optical effects as a result of manipulating light.
In Exercise 1, you will use Snell’s Law to make some predictions about how different mediums with different “indices of refraction” will affect the speed of light, and therefore the direction that light travels.
In Exercise 2, you will set up an experiment to test Snell’s Law. You will also be asked to make some initial (qualitative) observations that will set the stage for a more quantitative analysis.
Exercise 3 has you plotting some of the data you collected in Exercise 2. You will be asked to use your data to determine the index of refraction of water, and expand your results to make predictions about similar scenarios.
Learning Objectives
Set yourself the following learning outcomes for this lab:
By the end of this lab, I will be able to
- Understand the difference between refraction and reflection.
- Use angle of refraction to determine a material’s “index of refraction”.
- Calculate a critical angle using the concept of “total internal reflection”.
But before any of that, you’ll want to get yourself warmed up!
