Student Exploration: Refraction
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: angle of incidence, angle of refraction, freque
...
Student Exploration: Refraction
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: angle of incidence, angle of refraction, frequency, index of refraction, medium, refraction, Snell’s
law, total internal reflection, wave front, wavelength, wave speed
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
Two runners ran side by side, each holding one end of a horizontal pole.
1. What would most likely happen if one of the runners began jogging in knee-deep water?
2. How would this affect the direction of the runners? Explain.
Gizmo Warm-up
Light can travel through many materials, or media. As with a
runner on pavement or sand, the speed of light can change
when it moves into a different medium. The Refraction Gizmo
allows you to observe what happens to a beam of light as it
travels from one medium to another.
Turn off View wave fronts. Set Index of refraction 2 to 3.0.
1. Click Play ( ). Observe the ray of light as it passes from
Medium 1 to Medium 2.
The bending of the light ray you see is called refraction.
2. Click Reset ( ) and turn on View wave fronts. A wave front is an imaginary line that connects the
crests or troughs of a wave. The wavelength of a wave is the distance between wave fronts.
Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
If one of the runners began jogging in knee-deep water, the runner would slow down.
This would affect the direction of the runners because the runner on the dry ground would
outpace the runner in the water.
A. What happens to the speed of the light wave? The speed of the light wave got
significantly slower as it passed
from Medium 1 to Medium 2
B. What happens to the direction of the light wave? The direction of the light waves changes. The
wavelength decreases as the light enters the
medium and the light wave changes direction.Click Play. What happens to the wavelength of the wave as it passes into Medium 2?
Introduction: The normal is an imaginary line perpendicular to the boundary between two media. The angle
of incidence is the angle between the light ray in medium 1 and the normal. The angle of refraction is the
angle between the ray in medium 2 and the normal.
Question: What affects how much light waves refract?
1. Measure: Click Play. To measure the angle of refraction, turn on Click to
measure angles. Drag the protractor’s vertex to the intersection of the ray and the
normal. Align the protractor’s legs to the ray and the normal in Medium 2.
2. Gather data: For each angle of incidence listed in the table below, use the Gizmo to find the angle of
refraction. Then, fill in the “Change of direction” column by subtracting the angle of refraction from the angle
of incidence.
3. Analyze: What patterns do you notice?
4. Explain: Do you think refraction would occur if the angle of incidence is 0°? Explain.
Reproduction for educational use only. Public sharing or posting prohibited. © 2020 ExploreLearning™ All rights reserved
As the wavelengths of the wave pass into Medium 2, the wavelengths get tighter/shorter.
Activity A:
Angle of
refraction
Get the Gizmo ready:
● Click Reset. Turn off View wave fronts.
● Make sure View normal is selected.
● Make sure Index of refraction 1 is 1.0 and Angle
of incidence is 45°.
● Set Index of refraction 2 to 2.0.
What is the angle of refraction? 20.38
Angle of incidence Angle of refraction Change in direction
20° 9.7 10.3
40° 18.25 21.75
60° 25.32 34.68
80° 29.02 50.98
The angle of refraction is nearly half of what the angle of incidence is.
No, I do not think refraction would occur if the angle of incidence was 0°. If the angle of
incidence was 0°, then that would mean that the angle of refraction is also 0°. There would be
no change in direction.
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