gcsescience.com                                             23                                             gcsescience.com

Waves

Light - Total Internal Reflection - Critical Angle.

1.  When a light ray emerges from glass into air,
it is refracted and bends away from the normal, so i < r.

2.  As i is made bigger, the refracted ray
gets closer and closer to the surface of the glass.
When i equals the critical angle, the refracted ray
is just touching the glass surface.

Refraction                 Critical Angle

The critical angle is different for different materials,
for glass it is about 42 degrees.

Total internal reflection happens when i is bigger than the critical angle
(see next page).

back      Headings      Waves      Search      Questions      next

gcsescience.com              Contents             Index              Quizzes             gcsescience.com

Copyright © 2007 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.