Physics

Optics Lab

Station 1: Polarization

  1. Observe light through one polarizing filter. Write your observations on your separate lab report sheet.
  2. Observe light through both polarizing filters at once. Twist the filters so that the orientation of the filters ranges from zero degrees through 360 degrees. Record the relative darkness or lightness at these orientations:
  3. 0 degrees
  4. 45 degrees
  5. 90 degrees
  6. 135 degrees
  7. 180 degrees
  8. 225 degrees
  9. 270 degrees
  10. 315 degrees
  11. 360 degrees

Station 2: Mirrors

  1. View an image through each of the three concave mirrors. Describe the images as virtual or real, inverted or upright, and larger or smaller than the objects.
  2. Use the plane mirror and set it at an angle. Place and object in front of it and look at the image in the mirror. Record your observations. Describe the image as you did in A.
  3. Use the small mirrors from the kit. Try to form images on both sides of them. Describe the images as in A. What is making it so difficult to view images in these mirrors and the small concave mirror?

Station 3: Lenses

  1. Using the lenses from the kit view part of this paper. Draw and describe the images as real or virtual, inverted or upright, and smaller or larger than the text on the page.
  2. Use the round lenses and two rulers or meter sticks to calculate the focal length of the lenses. (Hint: Find magnification, then distance from the object to the lens. Calculate q, then calculate f). Do this for a concave lens and a convex lens.

Station 4: Prism

  1. Aim the light source so that the light will flow through the prism.
  2. Draw a schematic of the light source, the prism, and the light interacting with the prism.

Station 5: Diffraction grating

  1. Observe the room lights through the spectroscope. Draw a color schematic of what you see through the spectroscope.
  2. Record the wavelengths of light you see from the room lights.
  3. Observe the sun’s reflection off a surface such as a building outside. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN ITSELF! Draw a color schematic of what you see through the spectroscope.
  4. Calculate the frequency and energy per photon of each wavelength of light that is in the room lights.

Station 6: Identification of devices

  1. Identify each device on your separate lab sheet. The possibilities are listed here: polarizer(s), convex lens, concave lens, convex mirror, concave mirror, plane mirror.

Station 7: Miniature movie theater

  1. Use the light source to project the image from the “films” on to the “screen”. Try a variety of lenses until you find one that gives a good image on the “movie screen”.
  2. Draw a picture of the light waves from the light source hitting the “film” and what your lenses do to these waves to project them on the screen.

Station 8: Snell’s Law

A. Aim the light source at the water at an angle. Measure the incident angle and the refracted angle. Calculate the index of refraction of water. Calculate a percent error using 1.33 as the real value.