OBJECTIVE:

To determine the minimum angle of deviation

and the indices of refraction for various liquids
using a hollow prism by plotting a graph
between angle of incidence and the angle of
deviation.
The liquids used are:-

Coconut oil

Cold drink
Refined oil
Ccl4

APPARATUS USED
Drawing board
A white sheet of paper
Hollow Prism
Drawing pins
Pencil
Half meter scale
Office pins
Graph paper
Protractor

Theory
Refraction of light.
When light travels in a homogenous medium, it travels along a straight
path. However when it passes obliquely from one transparent medium to
another, the direction of its path changes at the interface of the two
media. This is called refraction of Light changes speed as it moves from
one medium to another (for example, from air into the glass of the
prism)
Refractive index

The refractive index of a medium for a light of given wavelength may be

defined as the ratio of the speed of light in vacuum to its speed in that
medium.
The refractive index of the material of the prism is given by- Draw a ray
diagram for the given formula to show what A and D are.

Where Dm is the angle of deviation and A is the angle of the prism.

Factors affecting refractive index: Nature of that medium
Wavelength of the light used
Temperature
Nature of surrounding medium

The path along which the light travels in the first medium is called
incident ray and that in the second medium is called refracted ray.
The angles which the incident ray and refracted ray make with the
normal at the surface of separation are called angle of incidence
and angle of separation respectively
LAWS OF REFRACTION OF LIGHT
The phenomenon of refraction of light follows the following
laws:-

 First law:-the incident ray, the reflected ray and the normal to
the interface at the point of incidence, all lie in the same
plane.
Second law:-the ratio of the sine of the angle of refraction is
constant for a given pair of media.

It is observed that when a ray of light passes from an optically rarer

medium to a denser medium it bends towards normal
When a ray of light passes from an optically denser to a rare medium, it
bends down away from the normal.

A ray of light travelling along the normal passes undeflected.

Optical density is a quantity is the ratio of the speed of light in two
media while mass density is the mass per unit volume. An optically
denser medium may have mass density less than an optically rarer
medium. For example, the mass density of turpentine is less than that of
water but turpentine is optically denser.
Physical significance of refractive index;
The refractive index of a medium gives the following two information:
The direction of bending of refracted ray. It tells whether the ray will
bend towards or away from the normal. Their refractive index is related
to the speed of light. For example ,refractive index of glass is 3/2 .this
indicates that the speed of light in glass is two third of its speed in
vacuum.

The minimum deviation D in a prism occurs when the entering angle and the exiting
angle are the same, a particularly symmetrical configuration. Applying Snell's Law at
the interfaces you can derive the following relationship:
n=sin[(D+a)/2]/sin(a/2)
where n is the relative index of refraction of the prism, and a is the angle between the
two relevant prism faces (60 degrees in our example). Using this relationship, we
could figure out what index of refraction was assumed for this simulation. we could
also use this method to measure the index of refraction of real materials.

PROCEDURE
1. Fixed a white sheet of paper on the drawing board with the help of drawing
pins or tape.
2. Drew a straight line XX` parallel to the length of the paper nearly in the
middle of the paper.
3. Marked points q1, q2, q3.on the straight line XX` at suitable distances of
about 5 cm.
4. Drew normals n1q1, n2q2, n3q ,..on points q1, q2,q3.
5. Drew straight lines r1q1, r2q2, r3q3, making angles of 35 , 40.60
degrees respectively with the normals.

6. Marked one corner of the prism as A and take it as the edge of the prism for
all the observations.
7. Prism was put with its refracting surface AB in the line XX` and the point
q1in the middle of AB
8. Marked the boundary of the prism.
9. Fixed two or more office pin P1 and P2 vertically on the line R1Q1, the
distance between the pins should be 10mm or more.
10.Looked at the images of point P1and P2 through face AC
11.Closed our left eye and brought open right eye in the line with the two
images.
12.Fixed two office pins P3 and P 4 vertically, and 10cm apart such that the
open right eye saw pinsP4 and P3 and images P2 and P1in one straight line.
13.Removed pins P3 and P4 and encircled their pricks on the paper.
14.Repeated the steps 7 to 13with points q2,q3 .for i= 40,,60 degrees.

To measure D in different cases

15 .Draw straight lines trough points p4 and p3to obtain emergent rays
s1t1,s2t2,.
16.Produced t1s1,t2s2,t3s3,inward in the boundary of the prism to
meet produced incident rays r1q1,r2q2,at points f1,f2,f3.
17.Measured angles k1f1s1,k2f2s2,these give angle of deviation
d1,d2,d3.
18.Wrote values of these angles on paper.
To measure A

1. Measured angle BAC in the boundary of the prism. This gives the
angle A .
2. Recorded values of observations as given below.

OBSERVATIONS
Serial no. of
observations

Angle of incidence

35

40

45

50

Angle of deviation

5.

55

*will include 6 more tables for other liquids.

CALCULATIONS
*includes graph for all the liquids.

RESULT
i.

i-D graph indicates that as the angle of incidence increases,

the angle of deviation first decreases, attains a maximum
value and then starts increasing for further increase in angle
of incidence.

ii.

Angle of incidence deviation=.

iii.

Refractive index of material of prism, n

PRECAUTIONS
1. The angle of incidence should lie between 35-60 degrees.
2. The pins should be fixed vertical
3. The distance between the two pins should not be less than 10mm.
4. Arrow heads should be marked to represent the incident and
emergent rays.
5. The same angle of prism should be used for all observations

SOURCES OF ERROR
1..Pin pricks may be thick.
2.Measurements of angles may be wrong.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Immense knowledge and help was provided by the following sources:1.S.L.Arora guide book
2.Internet