Refraction of Light
Refraction of Light: Overview
This topic explains the refraction phenomenon, when a ray of light passes from one optical medium to another medium and deviates. Snell’s Law of Refraction states that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is constant.
Important Questions on Refraction of Light
Velocity of light is greater in denser medium than in rarer medium.


The angle of incidence for a ray of light having zero reflection angle is_____

The Snell’s law can be derived from which type of incidence?

How does light travel in transparent media ?

What is the angle of refraction when angle of incidence is ?


Explain the refraction of light through a glass-slab with neat ray diagram.

When light fall obliquely on the surface of a thick glass slab, a part of the light reflects at the surface and a part of it refracts.

When it travels from one medium to another at an angle, the speed of the part of the light which enters the medium changes and the speed of the rest of the wave changes later.

If the absolute refractive index of glass is and that of water is , then find the ratio of speed of light in water and to that in glass.

Light travels from air to glass slab having refractive index of . The speed of light in glass will be ?
(Speed of light in vacuum is .)

If a ray of light passes obliquely from one medium to another, it does not suffer any deviation.

A piece of diamond is dipped in a liquid of refractive index . If the refractive index of diamond is , what is the refractive index of the diamond with respect to the liquid?

When a light ray from stars comes down towards the earth:


A pencil partly immersed in water in a glass tumbler appears askew. This is because

If the speed of light in a medium is , then what is the absolute refractive index of the medium?

On what factors does the refractive index of medium depend?

