AP Physics Take-Home Quiz – due Wednesday, January 3rd Name:
Geometric Optics: Reflection and Refraction
1) Light leaves a source at X and travels to Y along the path shown above. Which of the following statements is correct?
(A) The index of refraction is the same for the two media.
(B) Light travels faster in medium 2 than in medium 1.
(C) Snell's law breaks down at the interface.
(D) Light would arrive at Y in less time by taking a straight line path from X to Y than it does taking the path shown above.
(E) Light leaving a source at Y and traveling to X would follow the same path shown above, but in reverse.
2) An object is placed near a plane mirror, as shown above. Which of the labeled points is the position of the image?
(A) A (B) B (C) C (D) D (E) E
3) A light ray passes through substances 1, 2, and 3, as shown above. The indices of refraction for these three substances are n1, n2, and n3, respectively. Ray segments in 1 and in 3 are parallel. From the directions of the ray, one can conclude that
(A) n3 must be the same as n1
(B) n2 must be less than n1
(C) n2 must be less than n3
(D) n1 must be equal to 1.00
(E) all three indices must be the same
4) An object, slanted at an angle of 45°, is placed in front of a vertical plane mirror, as shown above. Which of the following shows the apparent position and orientation of the object's image?
5) An object is placed in front of a plane mirror. Compared to the object, the image formed by the mirror is
(A) upright and larger
(B) upright and smaller
(C) upright and the same size
(D) inverted and larger
(E) inverted and smaller
(F) inverted and the same size
A light ray R in medium I strikes a sphere of medium II with angle of incidence θ, as shown above. The figure shows five possible subsequent paths for the light ray.
6) Which path is possible if medium I is air and medium II is glass?
(A) A (B) B (C) C (D) D (E) E
7) Which path is possible if medium I is glass and medium II is air?
(A) A (B) B (C) C (D) D (E) E
8) The critical angle for a transparent material in air is 30°. The index of refraction of the material is most nearly
(A) 0.33 (B) 0.50 (C) 1.0 (D) 1.5 (E) 2.0
9) A student is asked to determine the index of refraction of a glass slab. She conducts several trials for measurement of angle of incidence qa in the air versus angle of refraction qg in the glass at the surface of the slab. She records her data in the following table. The index of refraction of air is 1.0.
a) Plot the data points on the axes below and draw a best-fit line for the data.
b) Calculate the index of refraction of the glass slab from your best-fit line. Show work below.
c) Describe how you could use the graph (but not the slope of the best-fit line) to determine the critical angle for the glass-air interface. Do not use the answer to part (b) for this purpose.
d) On the graph in (a), sketch and label a line for a material of higher index of refraction.