Reflections on Refraction from Lesson 5

Fish Tank Refraction See accompanying notes on wiki Light bends toward the normal when going from high speed to lower speed medium Light bends away from the normal when passing from a low speed to a higher speed medium Think in terms of analogies – eg lawnmowers or lifesavers

Activity 4: Refraction through a rectangular perspex prism

Variation of the angle of incidence with the angle of refraction for perspex

Newton’s Prisms – single prism Interpretation: Blue light refracts (is bent ) more than Red Light

Newton’s Prisms – double prism Prior to this experiment, one predominant belief was that the coloured light was caused when pure white light interacted with impurities in the prism. By recombining the colours to reform white light (using the second prism), Newton demonstrated that this was not the case – rather, he showed that white light is a mixture of coloured light.