Questions on Reflection and Refraction
- What is reflection? Do all waves reflect?
- What determines the angle of reflection?
- What determines how much of the light reflects
at a boundary?
- What is refraction?
- What factors determine the amount of
refraction?
- What is a ray? How do you form a ray?
- Redraw the ray diagram involving the
air-glass-water media, but now draw the rays for when the laser is shining
from the water-to-glass-to-air.
- What is index of refraction? Give an example of
three media whose indices of refraction are different. Which of these has the
lowest and which has the highest index of refraction?
- If you were to fish by bow and arrow technique,
where would you aim to actually strike a fish?
- What is the property of reciprocity?
- What happens to the phase of a wave when it
reflects as it propagates from a lower index medium to a higher index one?
- Would your answer to the above question change,
if the wave traveled in the opposite direction, i.e. from a higher to a
lower index material?
- What happens to the phase of a wave as it
transmits from one medium into another? Does it matter if it travels from a
higher to a lower index material or visa versa?
- What is the critical angle? What is total
internal reflection?
- Your friend is tanning by the side of the pool,
near the water surface and looking into the water. How would you swim toward
your friend, under the water, to avoid being seen?
- Give an example of a wave guide.
- What does a fish see looking up at a perfectly
calm surface of a lake? Can it see everything above the surface?
[To help you answer this, draw a ray diagram showing the refraction of light
entering the water and reaching the eyes of the fish.]