Why does Total Internal Reflection take place?

Question

I dont want what it is. I want to know the reason behind total internal reflection.

Answer 1

It happens when both of these two conditions are fulfilled:

1. Light should pass from a denser medium ( eg. glass) to a rarer medium (eg. air). Light then bends away from the normal.

2. The angle of incidence should be geater than the critical angle. The critical angle is the angle of incidence to which its correponding angle of reflection is 90 degrees. So, since the angle if incidence is greater than the critical angle, reflection angle would be greater than 90 and and the ray gets reflected back into the same medium.

This type of phenomenon ocurs with no loss of intensity of light. Various applications are found in sparkling of diamonds, mirages, looming, etc etc etc................................

Answer 2

when a light ray passes from a denser medium to a rarer medium the light ray is bend away from the normal. So if we go on increasing the angle of incidence then there will be a point when light ray will travel on the boundary of the two media. This angle is called critical angle. Now if we increase the angle greater than critical angle then light ray travels inside the same medium and hence it is totally internally reflected. This all depends on the refractive indices of the materials.

Answer 3

With no offence to the two answerers,i want to tell you that total internal reflection DOES NOT take place in a rainbow.... what actually takes place is dispersion and internal reflection but not total internal reflection(100% sure.....) Cheers...

Answer 4

if we consider the RI of the glass or any transparent medium then when the light pass from it to vaccum or a rarer medium then this phenomenon can be observed.
there is a particular value for incident angle known as critical, which is sin(inverse) of (1/R.I.) for which the light incident on the medium boundary, leaves along the medium boundary. if we increase the angle of incidence further then the light never enters the other medium i.e. it gets totally internally reflected.

Answer 5

because the angle of reflection of the totally reflected ray is greater than the critical angle of reflection made on the interface of the two mediums

Answer 6

When the angle of reflection exceeds the critical angle then this phenomenon takes place.It is of two ways as seen in geographical point of view 1)mirage
2)looming

Answer 7

The incident angle is bigger than the critical angle of the glass or transparent material.

Answer 8

when the angle of incidence is greater than critical angle
angle i > angle c

Answer 9

This will answer all your questions

http://justinsomnia.org/2005/03/google-makes-it-hard-to-ask-questions-of-people/

Answer 10

try this site. or u can even google it



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Internal_Reflection