Question

Which of the following is FALSE regarding refraction of light?

• A. The incident ray, the refracted ray and the normal to the interface all lie in the same plane.
• B. When light travels from air (vacuum with velocity c) to a medium with velocity v, then refractive index of the medium can be written as u = c/v.
• C. When light travels from a denser medium to rarer medium, it bends towards the normal.
• D. The ratio of sine of incidence angle (i) to the sine of refracted angle (r) is a constant for that pair of media.

Answer 1

Answer:

C. When light travels from a denser medium to rarer medium, it bends towards the normal.

When light travels from a denser medium to a rarer medium, it bends away from the normal, not towards it. Hence, option 3 is false. Refraction is the bending of the path of a light wave as it passes from one media to another media. It is caused by the change in speed experienced by the light ray. When a ray of light travels from a denser medium to a rarer medium, the ray will speed up and bend away from the normal.