Experiment: Prism Lab

Name: Lab Partner: Lab Group: Due Date: Stephen Rhatigan Kevin McMahon 2 28-10-11, 11pm

Introduction
In this experiment the goal was to measure the refractive index of various materials. In optics the refractive index or index of refraction of a substance or medium is a measure of
the speed of light in that medium. It is expressed as a ratio of the speed of light in vacuum relative to that in the considered medium. This can be written mathematically as: n = speed of light in a vacuum / speed of light in medium.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractive_index

Refraction occurs when a wave moves from one medium to another. According to Huygens proposition: Every point of a wave front may be considered the source of secondary wavelets that spread out in all directions with a speed equal to the speed of propagation of the waves.
http://physics.about.com/od/mathematicsofwaves/a/huygensprincipl.htm

So when the lights wave front, which is perpendicular to its direction of propagation, reaches the interface, secondary wavelets are produced. If the beam impinges on the surface at an angle, the component of the beam at one extremity enters the medium before a component at the other extremity. This affects the interference of the resulting wavelets, causing them to constructively interfere and produce a wave front which propagates at an angle different to the incident angle. The angle that the refracted ray makes with the normal to the interface is known as the angle of refraction. The refractive index of materials and their identification has many applications across a wide spectrum of industry and research. With accurate instrumentation, measurements of the refractive index of a medium can be useful in identification of said medium. While it is obvious that the refractive index of media would play a considerable role in the physics underlying radar, the more useful parameter is refractivity, a scaled refractive index which takes into account variables such as temperature and pressure. For the purposes of this experiment a spectrometer, consisting of a collimator, telescope and platform was employed. Using this apparatus, and a sodium light source, the angle of the prism was calculated based on observations of the images of the beam reflected from either side of the prism. The angle of minimum deviation was determined based on observations of the image of the beam refracted through the prism. The angle of the prism (A) and the angle of minimum deviation (D) were used in the following equation to determine the refractive indices of the considered media:

( ) Equation 1 In calculating the angle of the prism the difference in the angles of reflection from either side of the prism (which acted like plane mirrors) was taken as twice the prism angle. Explaining why this is so is best performed with the aid of diagrams as the key lies in simple geometry:

Fig 1

The angles I1 and I2 are the angles of incidence while R1 and R2 are their corresponding angles of reflection. The law of reflection states that I1=R1 and I2=R2. As we are assuming that the sides of prism act as a plane mirror it is clear that the angles marked B are equivalent and the same goes for the angles marked C. It is also clear from the diagram that: | The claim is that: Or that: |

In order to fully appreciate that this is so another diagram is required: (Fig2) In this diagram the orange lines are parallel and angles of the same colour are equal. It can be seen that:

And that: Thus: Applying this result to the first diagram we see that:

And so we arrive at the result that the angle of the prism is half the difference in the angles of reflection from either side. The next step in identifying the refractive index of glass was to determine the angle of minimum deviation. This angle can be understood to be the angle at which the light entering one planar side of the prism is refracted in such a way that it emerges from the other planar side of the prism at the same angle, as illustrated below:

Fig3 In this diagram the angle of deviation D = d1+d1. This measurement reaches a minimum when the angle of incidence (Ai) = the angle of emergence (Ae). A good interactive representation of this phenomenon can be found at:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mpeterso/classes/phys103/geomopti/MinDev.html

Rotating the platform on which the prism sits through 130 results in the position of the prism being the mirror image of the original position as shown in the diagram above. Determining the angle of minimum deviation as read by the scales on the apparatus for each of these positions and calculating their difference gives an angle that is twice the angle of minimum deviation. The following diagrams are self explanatory in explaining why this is so:

Fig 4 In Fig 4 the angle of minimum deviation is given by .

Fig 5 Fig 5, while admittedly a crude representation, nevertheless proves the result: | |

Apparatus

Experimental Method
The apparatus was as shown in the schematic. To calibrate the telescope it was focused at infinity (approximated by a point on the far side of the room). Next the collimator was focused such that the beam as viewed through the telescope was sharp. Finally the slit was narrowed to the point where the image was slightly wider that the crosshairs. The next step was to accurately measure the angle of the prism. In order to do this, the prism was positioned on the platform in such a way that the beam from the collimator would be roughly bisected by one of the apexes. The using the telescope the angle at which the beam was reflected from one side of the prism was located and centred in the crosshairs. This angle, as read from the scales on the apparatus, was recorded on the data sheet. The same was performed for the beam reflected from the other side. The difference in these angles was taken as twice the angle of the prism. To calculate the angle of minimum deviation the prism was positioned so that the beam was incident on the surface of the prism as shown in Fig 3. The telescope was rotated about the platform until the refracted beam was located. Once located, the platform was rotated, and the beam emerging from the prism was followed with the followed with the telescope until such a time as the rotation of the platform led to a change in direction of the rotating beam. This was taken to be the point at which the minimum deviation occurred. The angle as read from the scales on the apparatus was recorded. Next the platform was rotated approx 130 so that the prism was positioned at roughly its mirror image with respect to the beam from the collimator. The same procedure was conducted to measure the point at which minimum deviation occurred and the corresponding angle was recorded. For the next part of the experiment a hollow prism was employed and filled with the media being investigated, namely ethanol and water. Initially the angle of the hollow prism was determined in the fashion outlined above and then, as before, the angles corresponding to the minimum deviation were determined. The data obtained through experimentation was used in the equations listed in the Introduction to determine the refractive indices of the media.

Error Analysis
The error in the measured angles was taken as 0.05 degrees taking into account human error in reading the scales on the apparatus. The error in the values for the angles of the prisms and angles of deviation were calculated as follows: | |

The error in the mean of these values was calculated similarly. The error in the values for the refractive indices was calculated as follows:

( ) Set

Set

Set

and

( And finally set

Results
Glass Angle of Prism A/: Angle of Minimum Deviation D/: Refractive Index n: 59.92 0.01 39.18 0.01 1.52 0.01

Hollow Prism Angle of Prism A/ 59.79 0.02

Water Angle of Minimum Deviation D/: Refractive Index n: 23.52 0.02 1.33 0.03

Ethanol: Angle of Minimum Deviation D/: Refractive Index n: 25.79 0.02 1.36 0.03

Discussion
This experiment was very straightforward to perform. The most difficult parts came in familiarizing myself with the apparatus, identifying which observations were relevant to the desired measurements and understanding the geometry and physics underlying what was being investigated. In locating the reflected image of the beam care was taken to ensure that the image observed was that of the reflection rather than that of refraction. This distinction was made simple by the fact that the light source was not purely monochromatic and the refracted image could easily be identified by the separation of the beam into its constituent spectral colours. The same was true for the observations pertaining to the angle of minimum deviation in which the refracted images were the source of the desired data. It was important to ensure that the positions of the reflected and refracted beams were measured in a categorical manner. This entailed taking measurements based on the position in which the crosshairs of the telescope bisected the observed image of the slit. To ensure an accurate spread of data such measurements were also taken for the positions in which the edge of the beam was to the left and right of the centre of the cross wires. While this measure had little significance in the results for the angle of the prism, it played a larger role in the instances in which the beam was dispersed by the prism and the centre of the image was difficult to definitively locate. In examining the results of this experiment we see that the values quoted in the Results section of this paper concur with the values quoted here:
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/Gen3DTuts/Gen3DPages/RefractionIndexList.html

That our results agree with those quoted online is testament to the power and accuracy of the instrumentation. However, the comparison of our refractive index for the glass prism with the values from literature is hindered by the fact that we do not know the composition of the glass and as such we have to be satisfied that our results are in the ballpark of those quoted online. In terms of the error in the measurements I am happy that the error I took in the individual measurements was adequate and that as a result the errors in the results as calculated above were appropriate.