Light Through a Glass Slab
Class 10 Science: light (refraction through a glass slab)
Shine a ray into a glass block at different angles. See it bend towards the normal, bend back as it leaves, and come out parallel but shifted. Try water and diamond.
Words to know
- Refraction
- The bending of light when it goes from one material into another.
- Normal
- A line at 90° to the surface where the ray meets it.
- Refractive index (n)
- How much a material slows and bends light. Glass is about 1.5.
- Snell's law
- sin i ÷ sin r = n (the refractive index).
- Lateral displacement
- The sideways shift of the ray that comes out of a glass slab.
Quick check
Answer 3 questions to check what you learned.
Try at home
Put a pencil in a glass of water and look from the side. Then look at a line on paper through a thick glass paperweight or tumbler held at a slant.