Notes On Refraction

VISAKHA VALLEY SCHOOL, VISAKHAPATNAM
CLASS – X SUB: PHYSICS
CHAP: REFLECTION AND REFRACTION
TOPIC : REFRACTION
o Light does not travel in the same direction in all media.
o When travelling obliquely from one medium to another, the
direction of propagation of light in the second medium
changes. This phenomenon is known as refraction of light.
o Refraction is due to change in the speed of light as it enters from
one transparent medium to another.
The laws of Refraction are :
1. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the interface of
two transparent media at the point of incidence, all lie in the same
plane.
2. The ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of
refraction is a constant, for the light of a given colour and for the
given pair of media. This law is also known as Snell’s law of
refraction.
Where :-
o n1 = refractive index of first medium
o n2 = refractive index of second medium
o i = angle of incidence
o r = angle of refraction
Refractive Index
o The extent of the change in direction that takes place in a given
pair of media is expressed in terms of the refractive index.
o It turns out that light propagates with different speeds in different
media.
o The value of the refractive index for a given pair of media
depends upon the speed of light in the two media.
Where n21 is the refractive index of medium 2 with respect to

medium 1.
Similarly refractive index of medium 1 with respect to medium 1 is
given by n12 .
o Absolute refractive index : Refractive index of a medium with

respect to vacuum.
Note: optically denser medium does not mean that the medium
possess greater mass density.
o When a ray of light travelling from a rarer medium to a denser
medium slows down and bends towards the normal.
o When it travels from a denser medium to a rarer medium, it
speeds up and bends away from the normal.
Refraction by spherical lenses
o A transparent material bound by two surfaces, of which one or
both surfaces are spherical, forms a lens.
Terms related to lenses.

Centres of curvature :
o A lens has two spherical surfaces. Each of these surfaces forms
a part of a sphere. The centres of these spheres are called
centres of curvature of the lens.
o The centre of curvature of a lens is usually represented by the
letter C. Since there are two centres of curvature, we may
represent them as C1 and C2.
Principal axis:
oAn imaginary straight line passing through the two centres of
curvature of a lens is called its principal axis.
Optical centre :
o The central point of a lens is its optical centre.
o It is usually represented by the letter O.
Aperture:
o The effective diameter of the circular outline of a spherical lens is
called its aperture.
Focus:
o When rays parallel to principal axis gets refracted by convex lens
, they converge to a point on principal axis, this point is called
Principal focus.
o If you pass parallel rays from opposite side of lens you get
another principal focus on the opposite side.
o A lens has two principal focus, usually named F1 and F2.
o When rays parallel to principal axis gets refracted by concave
lens , they appear to diverge from a point on the principal axis ,
this point is called Principal focus.
o Concave lens also have two focii, usually named F 1 and F2.
Image formation by lenses
There are three rules which are to be followed:
o A ray of light from the object, parallel to the principal axis, after
refraction from a convex lens, passes through the principal focus
on the other side of the lens, as shown in. In case of a concave
lens, the ray appears to diverge from the principal focus located
on the same side of the lens.
o A ray of light passing through a principal focus, after refraction

from a convex lens, will emerge parallel to the principal axis. A
ray of light appearing to meet at the principal focus of a concave
lens, after refraction, will emerge parallel to the principal axis.
o A ray of light passing through the optical centre of a lens will

emerge without any deviation.
Image Formation by Convex Lens
position of position of nature of
object image size of image image
real &
at infinity at F2 point-sized inverted
between F2 & real &

2F2 Diminished inverted
beyond 2F1
real &
at 2F2 same size inverted
at 2F1
real &
between F1 & beyond 2F2 Enlarged inverted
2F1
highly real &

at infinity enlarged inverted
at F1
between F1 & on the same

O of object Enlarged virtual & erect
Image Formation by Concave Lens
position of position of nature of
object image size of image image
at infinity point sized virtual & erect

at F1
between
infinity and O between Diminished virtual & erect
F1 and O
Sign convention for spherical lenses
We follow sign conventions, similar to the one used for spherical
mirrors. We apply the rules for signs of distances, except that all
measurements are taken from the optical centre of the lens.
Lens formula & Magnification

Lens formula is given by:
where :
o u – image distance
o v – object distance
o f – focal length
o Magnification: The ratio of the height of the image and the height
of the object. It is represented by the letter m.
o The positive sign shows that the image is erect and virtual.
o The negative sign shows that the image is inverted and real.
Power of a lens
o The power of a lens is defined as the reciprocal of its focal
length.
o It is represented by the letter P.
o The SI unit of power of a lens is ‘dioptre’. It is denoted by the

letter D.
o Power of a convex lens is positive and that of a concave lens is
negative.
Refraction through a rectangular glass slab
• To understand the refraction of light through a glass slab consider the figure given
below which shows the refraction of light through a rectangular glass slab.
• Here in this figure AO is the light ray traveling in air and incident on glass slab at
point O.
• Now on entering the glass medium this ray bends towards the normal NN’ that is light
ray AO gets refracted on entering the glass medium.
• After getting refracted this ray now travels through the glass slab and at point B it
comes out of the glass slab as shown in the figure.
• Since ray OB goes from glass medium to air it again gets refracted and bends away
from normal N1N'1 and goes in direction BC.
• Here AO is the incident ray and BC is the emergent ray and they both are parallel to
each other and OB is the refracted ray.
• Emergent ray is parallel to incident ray because the extent of bending of the ray of
light at the opposite parallel faces which are PQ (air-glass interface) and SR (glass-
air interface) of the rectangular glass slab is equal and opposite.
• In the figure i is the angle of incidence, r is the angle of refraction and e is the angle
of emergence.
• Angle of incidence and angle of emergence are equal as emergent ray and incident
ray are parallel to each other.
• When a light ray is incident normally to the interface of two media then there is no
bending of light ray and it goes straight through the medium.
Figure :- Refraction of light through rectangular glass slab

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VISAKHA VALLEY SCHOOL, VISAKHAPATNAM

CLASS – X SUB: PHYSICS

CHAP: REFLECTION AND REFRACTION

Where n21 is the refractive index of medium 2 with respect to

o Absolute refractive index : Refractive index of a medium with

Terms related to lenses.

o A ray of light passing through a principal focus, after refraction

o A ray of light passing through the optical centre of a lens will

between F2 & real &

highly real &

between F1 & on the same

at infinity point sized virtual & erect

Lens formula & Magnification

o The SI unit of power of a lens is ‘dioptre’. It is denoted by the

Refraction through a rectangular glass slab

Figure :- Refraction of light through rectangular glass slab

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