Total Internal Reflection

In Fridays we discussed the critical angle, which is the measure of the angle of incidence when the angle of reflection is 90 degrees. If the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle, total internal reflection occurs.

Total internal reflection only occurs when the following conditions are met:

• a light ray is in the more dense medium and approaching the less dense medium.
• the angle of incidence for the light ray is greater than the so-called critical angle.

when the angle of incidence in water reaches a certain critical value , the refracted ray lies along the boundary, having an angle of reflection of 90-degrees. this angle of incidence is know as the critical angle and is the largest angle of incidence for which refraction can still occur. for any angle of incidence greater than the critical angle, light will undergo total internal refraction.

The critical angle can be calculated from Snell's law by setting the refraction angle equal to 90-degrees.

The next blog post will be written by whoever works at Ricks place.