Applications Of Reflection Of Light
When a light ray (termed as the incident ray) hits a surface and bounces back (forms a reflected ray), the process of reflection of light has taken place.
Sign Convention for Mirrors
A mirror is made of glass that is coated with a metal amalgam on one side due to which the light ray incident on the surface undergoes reflection and not refraction.
Snell's Law and the Law of Reflection explain how light is redirected when it encounters a surface between two media. In the extreme, light may only reflect at a boundary, and go back into the medium it was in. More often, some of it reflects and some goes through. If the boundary is plane and flat, then these laws are easy to interpret. When the boundary is curved, they describe happens at every point on the surface.
One of the class types of glass is called "crown" glass, which has an index of refraction for visible light of 1.52 and is usually free of significant impurities. It was one of the first glasses discovered, and windows are made from it. Another glass is called "flint" glass, and it has lead oxide added, which makes it heavier, more "dispersive" and colorful, and increases its index of refraction to 1.62.
We usually talk about refraction when the surface is smooth. But it is also possible for curved surfaces. Just take a point. Whichever "point" our light ray strikes at the curved interface (surface) we just draw a tangent along that point of the surface. Then we can do the same thing that is done for the plane surfaces with the tangential surface created, we can go ahead and draw the normal and apply laws, etc. Therefore, for a curved surface, Snell's law is true for every point.
Generally, the bending of light after the incident ray from a curved surface depends on the incident point and the angle of incidence. For every point of a curved surface, the bending of the ray is different even for the rays coming from the similar direction.
We have, the curved surface formula also to deal with such types of refractions..
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
