Snells Law

By Shoumit Sarkar

1 PURPOSE
This experiment will consist of 3 parts
1. Confirm that angle of reflection is always equal to angle of incidence
2. Find refractive index through angles of incidence and angles of refraction
3. Find refractive index through the measured critical angle

2 PROCEDURE
Experiment 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Place mirror black on blank white paper and mark the mirror boundary.
Using a light ray box shine a light ray towards mirror.
Use 2 fine crosses to mark the direction of the incident and reflected ray.
Measure angles and record data.
Repeat above steps for 5 different incident angles.

Figure 1: Sample set up for Experiment 1

Experiment 2
1. Place glass block on blank white paper and aim the incident light ray at one
of the parallel sides of the glass block.
2. Draw lines representing the incident and refracted rays for several angles of
incidence.
3. Repeat for 5 different incident angles and measure the required angles.
Experiment 3
1. Place glass block on blank white paper
2. Arrange the light ray so that it enters the black through the end and comes
out of the slanted side.
3. Slowly increase the incident angle until there is no refracted ray and there is
total internal reflection. Record this incident angle.

3 DATA
n1 sin 1=n2 sin 2
Experiment 1

incident /

reflected /

11.2
22.3
39.4
55.6
85.1

11.5
22.0
39.3
55.6
85.5

Figure 2: Table with angles of incidence and angles of reflection

Experiment 2

1 /
22.1
33.0
44.5
57.1
68.9

2 /
15.1
22.0
26.5
34.1
39.1

sin 1

sin 2

0.376
0.545
0.701
0.840
0.933

0.261
0.375
0.446
0.561
0.631

sin 1 /sin 2
1.44
1.45
1.57
1.50
1.48

Figure 3: Table with angles of incidence and refraction

nmean=1.49
=0.0462

sin _1 vs. sin _2

1
0.8

f(x) = 1.52x - 0.01

0.6

sin _1 0.4
0.2
0
0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

sin _2

Figure 4: Graph to find out the refractive index of the glass block

From this graph, we get a refractive index of 1.518. The slope of the graph is the
refractive index

n1 sin 1=n2 sin 2

n1=1 , n2=refractive index of glass block
sin 1=n 2 sin 2
y=mx +c
Experiment 3

c =43.5
n=

1
=1.45
sin c

4 ANALYSIS
Experiment 1
From our results, taking into account experimental error, we can conclude that the
angle of incidence always equals the angle of reflection.
Experiment 2
From our 5 different incident angles, we get a mean refractive index of 1.49 and a
standard deviation of 0.0462. From our graph we get a refractive index of 1.518
which is fairly close to our mean refractive index of 1.49.
Experiment 3
We found the critical angle of the same glass block used in Experiment 2, and using
this critical angle we found the refractive index of the glass block. This turned out to
be 1.45. This is within the standard deviation (1.488 0.0462) so we will accept
this result.
Possible sources of error include:

Non-constant width of the light ray

Parallax error when angle is being read off the protractor.

5 CONCLUSIONS
This experiment was basically an investigation into Snells law. It has demonstrated
that angles of incidence always equal angles of reflection. Also we investigated
methods of finding the refractive index of a glass block through different methods.

One interesting aspect of this experiment was total internal reflection. For this to
occur the refractive index of the medium of incidence has to be lesser than the
refractive index of the medium of refraction.
Lastly optical fibers are interesting props. There are two surfaces in an optical fiber
the core and the cladding. The core is where the light travels through and the
cladding surrounds the core. In order for total internal reflection to occur, the
cladding has a lower refractive index than the core.