TUTORIAL 1 (GEOMETRICAL OPTICS)

Reflection and refraction

1. A light ray is incident to a flat mirror. The light reflected to the water surface and refracted.
Determine the θ angle. Given nwater = 1.33, nair = 1.00 and nglass = 1.5.

2. Find the value for i1, nw and i2

3. A swimmer has dropped her goggles in the shallow end of a pool, marked as 1.0 m deep. But
the goggles don’t look that deep. Why? How deep (apparent depth) do the goggles appear to be
when you look straight down into the water? (Ans: 0.75 m)

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4. A fish 18.0 cm from the surface, is viewed directly from above the water in a pond. How far
does it appear to be brought nearer the surface if the index of refraction of water is 1.33?
Explain in terms of true depth and apparent depth.

5. State Law of reflection and Law of refraction.

6. Determine the speed of light in a diamond if the refractive index for diamond = 2.42. (Ans :
1.24 x 108 ms-1)

7. A light ray of wavelength 589 nm in vacuum passes through a piece of silica (n = 1.458).
(a) Find the speed of light in silica. (Ans : 2.06 x 108 ms-1)
(b) What is the wavelength of this light in silica? (Ans : 404 nm )
(c) Find the frequency of the light. ( Ans : 5.09 x 1014 Hz)

8. A light ray of wavelength 589 nm moves from inside the glass (n = 1.52) toward the glass-air
interface at an angle of 30.0 to the normal. Determine the angle of refraction.
(Ans : 49.5° away from the normal )

9. A beam of light of wavelength 500 nm traveling in air incident on a slab of transparent

material. The incident beam makes an angle of 40 0 with the normal, and the refracted beam
makes an angle of 260 with the normal. Find the index of refraction of the material and the
wavelength of light in the material. (Ans : 340 nm)

10. A beam of light travelling in air as in Figure below is incident on the surface of a block of
plastic at an angle 62.7° to the normal and is bent so that it makes a 48.1° angle with the normal
in the plastic. Find the speed of light in the plastic. (c = 3 x 10 8 m/s, nair = 1.00) (Ans: 2.5 x 108
m/s)

11. A light ray whose frequency is 6 x 1014 in vacuum is incident on water (n=1.33). What is the
wavelength of the light after it enters the water? (Ans : 376nm)

12. Light is refracted through a diamond. If the angle of incidence is 30⁰, and the angle of
refraction is 12⁰, what is the index of refraction?(Ans : 2.4)

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13. Calculate the refractive index of water, given the speed of light in water is (¾)c. Given c=3
x 108 m/s. (Ans: 1.33)

14. A sodium light from air enters water and then into a glass. If the angle of incidence is 45°,
what is the angle of refraction of the glass? Given n air = 1.00, nwater = 1.33 , nglass = 1.63
(Ans : 26°)

15. A beam of light is incident from air on water at an angle of 30°. Part of the light is reflected
and part is refracted. Find the angles of two beams. Given n water = 4/3, nair = 1.00 ( θ reflection =
30° , θ refraction = 22° )

16.
θ1
Air

θ2 Glass
θ2

Air
θ3

A light ray travels from glass into water. Determine the critical angle of the glass. If the
angle of incidence on the glass is 55°, what is the angle of refraction? ( n glass = 1.5, nwater =
1.33 ) ( Ans: 62.45°, 67.5° )

17. An anthropologist found an insect trapped and preserved within a transparent fossil during
his expedition. If the insect appears to be 2.5 cm beneath the surface when viewed directly
from above, how far below the surface is the insect actually located? Given the index of
refraction for the fossil = 1.546. (Ans : 3.865 cm)

18. The figure below shows the position of light when it strikes the interface boundary of air
and glass. Refractive index for medium A is 1.60. Calculate the greatest incident angle
which will allow the beam to refract to medium B and is still visible. Name this angle.

Incident ray

Medium A

Medium B (critical angle, c = 38.68° )

19. A chest that is located at the bottom corner of the swimming pool has been seen by a tourist
who is looking at 15° from the horizontal. (see below figure). What is the depth, h of the
6.0 m
15⁰
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h
Chest
 swimming pool? ( refractive index of water = 1.33, refraction index of air = 1.00) (Ans :
5.68 m)

20. a) Calculate the critical angle for a diamond in air.

b) Calculate the critical angle for a diamond under water.
c) Explain why a diamond sparkles less under water than in air.
( Refractive index : nair = 1.00, nwater = 1.33, ndiamond = 2.42 )

21. Using appropriate diagrams, explain the difference between specular and diffuse reflection.

22. Give one example for each type of reflection.

23.

Figure 5 shows the propagation of incident red light from medium liquid P to the air.
a) Calculate the angle of refraction.
b) Calculate the refractive index for liquid P.
c) Calculate the critical angle for liquid P.
d) Give two conditions for total internal reflection to occur.
e) Name two optical devices that utilize this phenomenon.

24. A fish is swimming in a bucket of water at a depth of 30 cm. If you are looking down at the
fish, how deep does the fish appear to be swimming in the water? (index of refraction for
water = 1.33) (Ans : 22.6 m)

Lenses

1. A convex lens is constructed such that the radii of the first and second surfaces are 0.12 m
and 0.16 m respectively. What is the focal length of the lens? The refractive index of the
material of the lens is 1.5.

2. A concave lens is formed of borosilicate crown glass, which has a refractive index of 1.51
for light of wavelength 400 nm. If the radii of curvature of the front and back spherical
surfaces are 0.20 m and 0.25 m respectively, find the focal length of the lens.

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3. An object is placed at 10 cm from a convex lens with the focal length 15 cm. Determine the
position and the nature of image formed.
4. An object is placed at 30 cm from a concave lens with the focal length 20 cm. Determine the
position and the nature of image formed.

5. Two converging lenses, with focal lengths f1 = 20 cm and f2 = 25 cm, are placed 80 cm
apart, as shown in figure below. An object is placed 60 cm in front of the first lens.
Determine :
a) the position, and
b) the magnification, of the final image formed by the combination of the two lenses.

6. Two converging lenses from question 5, are placed so they are now only 20 cm apart. The
object is still 60 cm in front of the first lens. Determine:
a) The position of the final image, and
b) The overall magnification.

7. Two converging lenses with focal lengths 0.205 m and 0.307 m, respectively, are combined
with a third diverging lens of focal length 0.504 m to form a single compound lens, where
all three lenses are very close together. What is the focal length of this compound lens?

8. An object of height 3.0 cm is placed in vertical position at a distance 10 cm from a convex

lens with a focal length of 15 cm.

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 a) Find the position where the image is formed, is the image real or virtual?
b) Find the magnification of the image, is the image erect or inverted.

9. A sharp image is located at 85.0 mm behind a 70.0 mm focal length converging lens. Find
the object distance by using
a) A ray diagram
b) Calculation

10. Calculate the focal length of the converging lens which will project a real image of a lamp,
magnified 4 times, upon a screen 10.0 m from the lamp. (Ans: 1.6 m)

11. A convex meniscus lens is made from a glass with n=1.50. The radius of curvature of the
convex surface is 22.4 cm and that of the concave surface is 46.2 cm.
(a) What is the focal length?
(b) Where will it focus an object 2.0 m away? (Ans: 87 cm, 1.53 m)

12. Determine the focal length of thin convex lens which produces a virtual image whose size is
5x than the object is placed 20 cm from the lens. (Ans: 25 cm)

13. The distance between an object and its sharp image on a screen is 6.0 m apart. What is the
focal length of a lens needed to form an image of the object 5 X bigger than actual size?
(Ans : 0.83 m)

14. An object is placed at a distance of 4.0 cm from a concave mirror of focal length 10.0 cm.
i) Determine the image distance and the magnification of the object.
ii) Sketch a ray diagram to show the formation of the image. (Ans: 6.7 cm, 1.7 cm )

15. A diverging meniscus lens has a convex surface of radius 30.0 cm and concave surface of
radius 20.0 cm. The refractive index of the glass is 1.5. Calculate the focal length. (Ans:
-120 cm)

16. An object of height 6.0 cm is placed 120 cm in front of a convex mirror with focal length of
30 cm. What is the height of the image? (Ans: 1.2 cm )

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17. A lens of focal length 15.0 cm is placed in contact with another lens. The combination has
focal length of 25.0 cm. What is the focal length of the second lens? (Ans: - 37.5 cm )

18. An object of 12.0 cm height is placed 28.0 cm from a diverging lens with a focal length of
16 cm. Determine the position, magnification and the height of the image? (Ans: -10.18 cm,
0.36, 4.42 cm )

19. An object is placed 110 cm in front of convex lens of focal length 25 cm. A second convex
lens with focal length 6.0 cm is placed 40 cm behind the first lens. Where is the final image
formed?(Ans: 27.8 cm )

20. A convex meniscus lens is made from glass with n = 1.50. The radius of curvature of the
convex surface is 22.4 cm and that of the concave surface is 46.2 cm.
a) What is the focal length? (86.96 cm)
b) Where will it focus an object 2.00 m away? (153.86 cm)

Mirror

1. An object of height 6 mm is placed 60 cm from a concave mirror with radius 30 cm.

Determine the nature of the image form?

2. An external rearview car mirror is convex with a radius of curvature of 16 cm. Determine
the location of the image and its magnification for an object 10.0 cm from the mirror.

3. A 2.0 cm high object is placed 7.10 cm from a concave mirror whose radius of curvature is
10.2 cm. Find:
a) The location of the image and the size of the image.
b) What is the nature of the image?

4. A convex mirror is used to reflect light from an object placed 66 cm in front of the mirror.
The focal length of the mirror is -46 cm. Find:
a) the location of the image and
b) The magnification.

5. A cosmetic mirror is designed to magnify by a factor of 1.2 when your face is placed 20.0
cm in front of it.
(a) What type of mirror is it?
(b) Calculate the focal length of the mirror.

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 (c) Find radius of curvature of the mirror. (Ans: 120 cm, 240 cm)

6. The radius of curvature of a spherical mirror is 84.0 cm. An image is formed 97.0 cm in
front of the mirror. Determine:
(a) the focal length of the mirror.
(b) the magnification of the image.
(c) whether the image is real or virtual, upright or inverted. (Ans: 42 cm, -1.3)

7. A convex mirror forms a virtual image half the size of the object. Assuming the distance
between image and object is 20.0 cm. Determine the radius of curvature of the mirror. (Ans:
-80 cm)
8. An object is placed 10.0 cm from a spherical mirror to display a virtual and upright image
which is twice the size of the object.
(a) Name the kind of spherical mirror required. Give reason for your answer.
(b) Find the radius of curvature of the mirror. (Ans: 40 cm)

9. A concave mirror has a radius of curvature of 4.0 m. A child stands in front of it and he
appears 2.5 times taller than his actual height. If the image is upright, how far is he standing
from the mirror?

10. The image of an object is 6.0 cm from a convex mirror. Radius of curvature is 24 cm, what
is the object distance? (Ans: +12 cm)

11. A real image is formed 40.0 cm from spherical mirror. The image is twice size of the object.
What kind of mirror it is, and what is its radius of curvature? (Ans: 26.7 cm )

12. A small lamp is placed 6 cm from a convex lens with a focal length of 6 cm. Find the
position of the image by using a ray diagram.

13. An object is placed 20 cm to the left of a converging lens of focal length 25 cm. A diverging
lens of focal length 10 cm is 25 cm to the right of the converging lens. Find the position and
magnification of the final image. (Ans: 9.3 cm in front of 2nd lens, 0.37)

14. A meniscus lens is made with radius of curvature of the convex surface being 25 cm and the
concave surface 45 cm. If the glass used has index of refraction 1.5, what is the focal length
of this lens? (Ans: 113 cm)

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15. An object is placed 15 cm from a thin convex lens. The lens produces a real image whose
size is twice that of the object. At what distance from the lens must the object be placed in
order to obtain a virtual image whose size is also twice that of the object? Sketch a ray
diagram for each image. (real image v = 30 cm, f = 10 cm. virtual image u = 5 cm)

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