refraction (topic 6)

Question 1

state what happens to the light when it is incident on the plane mirror

Answer 1

it reflects

Question 2

state the law of reflection

Answer 2

the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection

Question 3

Answer 3

Question 4

a student is investigating the path of light through a transparent block, describe a method the student could use to obtain the results in the table above (6)

Answer 4

• place the block on piece of paper
• draw around block
• shine the ray box through the block
• mark the ray of light entering the block
• mark the ray of light leaving the block
• remove block and join rays of light previously drawn
• draw normal line at 90° to the boundary
• using a protractor measure the angle of incidence
• using a protractor measure the angle of refraction
• repeat for different angles of incidence in the range (0° to 70°)

Question 5

the speed of light in a vacuum is

Answer 5

3 x 10^8 m/s

Question 6

when light travels from a more optically dense medium to a less optically dense medium, light bends what the normal

Answer 6

away

Question 7

when light travels from a less optically dense medium to a more optically dense medium, light bends what the normal

Answer 7

towards

Question 8

when light travels from air into water, which of the following decreases

Answer 8

wavelength

Question 9

Answer 9

• the angle of incidence is incorrectly labelled, it should be between the normal and the incident ray
• light would not bend away from the normal as it enters the glass block
• light would not bend towards the normal as it leaves the glass block

Question 10

Answer 10

Question 11

explain why it is better to use a thin beam of light when investigating refraction (1)

Answer 11

• it is difficult to tell where the centre of a beam of light is when it is wide
• larger uncertainty in the angles measured

Question 12

Answer 12

35°