Refraction of Light

Topic Content:

Light travels in a straight line, however, when a ray of light travels from one medium to another with different optical densities, there is a change in the direction of the light ray. This change in direction is called refraction .

What is Refraction?

Refraction is the change in direction or bending of light rays as it passes from one optically dense medium to another different optically dense medium.

• A light ray traveling towards the air-glass boundary (PO) is the incident ray .
• The ray of light passing through the glass (OR) is the refracted ray .
• The angle between the incident ray and the normal is called angle of incidence (i) .
• The angle between the refracted ray and the normal is called angle of refraction (r) .

When a ray of light travels from a denser medium to a less dense medium, it is refracted away from the normal and when a light ray travels from a less dense medium to a denser medium, it is refracted towards the normal.

Light can travel from air to glass or from