Nirmala Convent High School

Renukoot, Sonebhadra

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Physics Project
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Total Internal Reflection

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➢ Submitted to– Mr. Arun Kumar Tiwari

➢ Submitted by– Pranjal Rai
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➢ Class– XII– A
➢ Roll Number– 12

Teacher's signature-________
 Certificate
This is to certify that Pranjal Rai of Class XII

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A of Nirmala Convent High School has

completed the project successfully

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under my supervision. He had taken proper

care and shown utmost sincerity in the

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completion of this project.
I certify that this project is up to my

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expectations and as per the guidelines

issued by CBSE.
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SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
(Sub. Teacher) (Principal)
 Acknowledgment
I am overwhelmed in all humbleness and gratefulness
to acknowledge my depth to all those who have helped

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me to put these ideas, well above the level of simplicity

and into something concrete. I would like to express my

special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Mr. Arun

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Tiwari Sir as well as our principal who gave me this

fantastic opportunity to do this wonderful project on

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the topic, which also helped me in doing a lot of

Research and I came to know about so many new

things. I am really thankful to them. Any attempt at any

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level can‘t be satisfactorily completed without the

support and guidance of My parents and friends. I

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would like to thank my parents and friends who helped

me a lot in gathering different information, collecting

data and guiding me from time to time in making this

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project, despite of their busy schedules, they gave me

different ideas in making this project unique

 Content

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Introduction
Total Internal Reflection

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Conditions for Total Internal

Reflection
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Relation between refractive

index (μ) and critical angle (C)

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Applications of Total Internal

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Reflection
Uses
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Bibliography
 Introduction
Whenever a ray of incident light travels from

one medium to another, its path is changed i.e.

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it gets refracted.
If the ray travels from denser medium to rarer
medium, it suffers deviation away from the

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normal at the point of incidence. As the angle

of incidence is increased, the angle of

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refraction also keeps on increasing. At a certain

angle of incidence, called the critical angle, the

refracted ray grazes along the surface of

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separation i.e. angle of refraction becomes just

90°. If the angle of incidence is further

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increased, no refraction takes place. Instead

such a ray gets reflected inside the medium

itself. This phenomenon is called total internal

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reflection.
Refraction :-
The phenomenon of bending

of light when it come from one

medium to another medium is

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called refraction.

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Reflection :-
The phenomenon in which a ray

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comes from one medium and bending

of that ray in same medium i.e. Total

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Internal Reflection takes place called

reflection.
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 Total Internal Reflection
Total internal reflection is the phenomenon of
reflection of light which occurs when a ray of light

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traveling in a denser medium is incident at the interfere

of the two media at an angle greater than the critical

angle for that pair of media.

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Consider a surface xy separates the rarer medium a

from the denser medium b. A ray of light OA from the

object O in denser medium incident normally on the

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surface of separation, gets refracted into the rarer

medium as such along AL. Another ray of light incident

along the oblique path OA, is refracted away from

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normal along the path A1B1 in rarer medium. As the

angle of incidence is increased, the angle of refraction

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also goes on increasing, till for a certain angle of

incidence C, called the critical angle. When angle of

incidence is greater than critical angle then total

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internal reflection takes place.

 Conditions for TIR

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There are Two Basic conditions for total

internal reflection to happen:-

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1. The incident ray should travel from denser

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to rarer medium.
2. The angle of incidence should be greater

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than the critical angle for the given pair of

media.
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Rarer
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Denser
Relation between refractive index (μ) and
critical angle (C)
When refraction takes place at point C, it follows

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that the refractive index of medium A w.r.t.

medium B is given by
BμA =

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AμB =
if i = c (critical angle)
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r = 90°
AμB =
Refractive index is inversely proportional to sine

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of critical angle.
Its relation with polarizing angle :
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According to Brewster’s Law, when light is

incident at polarizing angle at the interface of a

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refracting medium, the refractive index of the

medium is equal to the tangent of the polarizing

angle.
If P is polarizing angle and μ, the refractive index

of the refracting medium, then μ = tan P.

 Applications of TIR
1. Totally Reflection Prism :
To deviate a ray of light through 90° and 180°.

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A right angled isosceles prism can be used to cause total internal
reflection. In such a right angled prism when a ray of light is
incident normally to its face AB, it passes into prism as incidence
is 45°. But for glass (μ = 1.5), the value of critical angle is about

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41.8°. Since the value of incident angle is greater than the critical
angle for glass, the ray of right suffers total internal refection. As
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a result, it gets incident on the force AC at 90° and comes out of
the prism as such. It follows that the path of the ray of right was
been deviated by the prism through 90°.
Advantages of Totally Reflecting Prism over the Silvered
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Plane Mirror:-
A reflecting prism does not require any silvering.
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A silvered plane mirror always absorbs some light. In a good

mirror, the reflection of light about 90-95%. However, in a
reflecting prism, almost 100% reflection is secured.
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Due to imperfect and non-uniform silvering of the mirror, the

image obtained with a mirror is oftenly not of a good quality.
 2. Mirage :
It is an optical illusion observed in desert in a hot day. The

object such as tree is observed inverted and observer gets an

impression that there is a pool of water. This phenomena is

known as mirage.

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Due to intense heat, the surface of earth becomes quite hot

and the temperature of air near the surface of earth is max.

The temp of the other layers of the air goes on decreasing as

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one goes up. Refractive index of air increases slightly for
higher layers. Thus a ray of light traveling from point O of a
tree passes through air of gradually decreasing refractive
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index and is therefore refracted more and more away from
the normal and accordingly the angle of incidence goes on

increasing. At a layer, when the angle of incidence becomes

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greater than the critical angle, total internal reflection takes

place. Then the ray of light starts traversing layers of

increasing refractive index and goes on bending more and

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more towards the normal. Ultimately, when the ray reaches the

eye of the observer, it appears to be coming from the point I.

Hence the inverted image of the tree produces the impression

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of reflection from a pool of water.

 3. Brilliance of Diamonds and Other Precious

Stones :
Diamond shines very brightly because it has a very high

refractive index and very low critical angle i.e. = 2.47 & C =

23° . Dur to low critical angle, a diamond cut so as to have

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a large number of faces, such that a ray of light entering it

from one face undergoes repeated total internal reflections

from other faces. As a result, the faces through which the

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light emerges, shine very brilliantly.

4. Optical Fibres :
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In 1870, John Tyndall, a British physicist demonstrated that

light could be made to follow curved path along a thin

stream of water coming out of a water tank. This effect

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was made use of an illuminated fountains. The light follows

curved path it suffers a series of total internal reflections.

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Optical fiber consists of thousands of strands of a very fine

quality glass or quartz of refractive index about 1.7 or so.

The thickness of a strand is about 10-6 cm. The strands are

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coated with a layer of some material of lower refractive

index (μ=1.5).

John Tyndall
 When light is incident at a small angle at arc end, it gets

refracted into strands and gets incident on the interface of

the fibres and the coating. The angle of incidence being

greater than critical angle, the ray of light undergoes total

internal reflections. Each fibre act as a pipe and such a

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bundle of fibres can be used to convey images along paths

of any shape. The optical fibre does not bend light. Instead,

light follows the zig-zag path through the fibres.

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5. Looming :
It is an optical illusion observed in the cold countries. In

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which observers get an impression that object is placed in
air.
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Optical Fibre
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Looming
 Uses
i) Optical fibres are used in the field of
communication and the computers.
ii) The optical fibres are used for making medical

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investigation.
iii) The optical fibre sensors have been used to

measure temperature and pressure.

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iv) The optical fibres are used for transmitting the

optical signals and the two dimensional pictures.

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v) The optical fibre in the form of photometric sensors

are used for measuring th e blood flow in the heart.

vi) The optical fibre in the form of refract meters are

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used to determine the refractive indices of liquids.

vii) Optical fibre are used in telephone and other

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transmitting cables.
viii) Optical fibre are used in transmission and

reception of electrical signals by converting them first

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into light signal.

 Bibliography

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NCERT Class XII Textbook for Physics

Pradeep’s Fundamental Physics.

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Website:- www.allprojectreports.com

Wikipedia
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Google Photos
Youtube India
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