Determining Refractive Index Aim of the Experiment To investigate the refraction of light by a perspex block Equipment Ray Box - to provide a narrow beam of light to refract through the perspex box...
Refraction When light crosses the boundary between two media with different optical densities, it refracts At the boundary, the light undergoes a change in direction The change in direction depends...
Reflection When light hits a smooth plane surface, most of it gets reflected Very smooth reflective surfaces (e.g. mirrors) are known as specular plane reflectors For these surfaces, the law of ref...
Reflection, Refraction & Transmission When waves arrive at a boundary between two materials, they can be: Reflected Refracted Transmitted Absorbed Reflection Reflection occurs when: A wave hits...
Malus's Law Intensity of Polarised Light The intensity of unpolarised light is reduced as a result of polarisation If unpolarised light of intensity I0 passes through a polariser, the intensity of ...
Polarisation Transverse waves can oscillate in any plane perpendicular to the direction of motion (and energy transfer) of the wave Such waves are said to be unpolarised When a transverse wave is p...
Superposition The principle of superposition states that: When two or more waves meet, the resultant displacement is the vector sum of the displacements of the individual waves The principle of sup...
Amplitude & Intensity Intensity The intensity of a wave is defined as follows: Power per unit area Intensity is measured in W m–2 Power is defined as: The rate of energy transfer Therefore, int...
Wavefronts Waves can be represented graphically in two different ways: Wavefronts - lines joining all the points that oscillate in phase and are perpendicular to the direction of motion (and energy...
