. REFRACTION OF LIGHT Light seems to travel along straight-line paths in a transparent medium. What happens when light enters from one transparent medium to another? Does it still move along a straight-line path or change its direction?
We shall recall some of our day-to-day experiences. You might have observed that the bottom of a tank or a pond containing water appears to be raised. Similarly, when a thick glass slab is placed over some printed matter, the letters appear raised when viewed through the glass slab. Why does it happen?
Have you seen a pencil partly immersed in water in a glass tumbler? It appears to be displaced at the interface of air and water. You might have observed that a lemon kept in water in a glass tumbler appears to be bigger than its actual size, when viewed from the sides. How can you account for such experiences?
Let us consider the case of the apparent displacement of a pencil, partly immersed in water. The light reaching you from the portion of the pencil inside water seems to come from a different direction, compared to the part above water. This makes the pencil appear to be displaced at the interface. For similar reasons, the letters appear to be raised, when seen through a glass slab placed over it.
Does a pencil appear to be displaced to the same extent, if instead of water, we use liquids like kerosene or turpentine? Will the letters appear to rise to the same height if we replace a glass slab with a transparent plastic slab? You will find that the extent of the effect is different for different pair of media. These observations indicate that light does not travel in the same direction in all media.
It appears that 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. Let us understand this phenomenon further by doing a few activities.