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Lab Report: reflection and Refraction Name Institution Affiliation Introduction Goals The goals of experiments were 1) To explore the reflection of a light ray from a shiny, smooth surface. 2) To understand and observe how a curved mirror focuses incoming parallel light rays to a single point. 3) To explore the behavior of a light ray as it passes from one transparent medium into another transparent medium. 4) To verify that “Snell’s Law” of refraction holds for light rays passing from air to Lucite (a plastic) and from Lucite to air. 5) To calculate the “index of refraction” for Lucite from the data. Introduction The propagation and behavior of light rays and wavefronts through space can be demonstrated through reflection and refraction. Reflection describes the bouncing back of light at an interface between two such that the wavefront returns to the medium of origin. The phenomena are described using the laws of reflection which states that the angle at which a ray is incident on a plain surface is equivalent to the angle at which the same ray is reflected. Also, the incident ray and the reflected ray as well as the normal, all lie on the same surface. On the other hand, when light waves pass through transparent media of different densities, the direction of the wave is changed as a result of a change in speed. The aspect of refraction can be described using the law of refraction (Snell’s law) which is illustrated by the equation n1sin θ1=n1sin θ2 Whereby n is the refractive index of the medium and θ is the corresponding angle. Hypothesis The incidence and reflected rays on a plane surface are equal The radius of curvature is
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