Physics question- If the angle of incidence from glass to air exceeds the critical angle, what will happen?

Question

Thank you!

Answer 1

Whenever a ray enters from glass medium to air medium, the light is reflected as well as refracted. That is both reflection and refraction take place.

When the angle of incidence (in glass) is zero, the angle of refraction (in air) is also zero. This is called normal incidence and there is no reflection inside the glass.

When the angle of incidence is increased from zero, there is both reflection and refraction. For refection the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and for refraction the angle of refraction (in air) is greater than the angle of incidence (in glass).

When the angle of incidence equals the critical angle there is both reflection and refraction. For refection the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection and for refraction the angle of refraction (in air) equals 90 degree.

When the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle, then there is no refraction and there is only reflection and the angle of incidence is equal to angle of reflection.

The ray not only is reflected internally but also is totally reflected, i.e., there is no refraction. That is there is TOTAL internal reflection.

Answer 2

If mild is vacationing from a extra dense fabric to a a lot less dense fabric then this is going to likely be completely internally contemplated (and obey the regulation of mirrored image) if its incident attitude is larger then the acute attitude. the following is an exciting ingredient of this phenomenon. If mild is thoroughly internally contemplated ,say from glass to air, there is easily a chunk of "non-propagating" mild that "stands proud" into the air. Its intensity decreases very instantly. in spite of the indisputable fact that, if yet another piece of glass is presented close adequate (interior some wavelengths) the piece of light sticking out will bounce the hollow and some mild will then propagate via the 2d piece of glass. it truly is often stated as "photon tunneling" and is particularly analagous to "electron tunneling" it rather is used in such various of of our digital instruments.

Answer 3

Then, the light will go through a "total internal reflection" thereby not letting any of the light to escape to air.

I don't mean to discourage the questioner, but such a text book question should be easily answered by reading the textbook itself.

Answer 4

That's what happens with fiber optics. The light bounces along inside the fiber. Look up Brewster's angle..


If you have Java working, this is really cool:
http://www.mic-d.com/java/brewster3d/

However, it talks about polarization, not total reflection.