Total Internal Reflection

Optical Fibres
1. carry visible light over long distances
2. work (because of total internal reflection) by bouncing waves off the sides of a thin inner core of glass or plastic
  1. wave enters one end of the fibre and is reflected repeatedly until it emerges at the other end
Critical Angle
1. dense material with a high refractive index
  1. low critical angle
    1. Critical angle of glass: 42* Critical angle of diamond: 24*
      1. why diamonds are so sparkly
2. material with high refractive index
  1. will totally internally reflect more light
    1. more light will be incident at an angle bigger than the critical angle
Endoscopes
1. a thin tube containing optical fibres
  1. lets surgeons examine inside the body
2. consists of two bundles of optical fibres
  1. one: carry light to the area of interest
  2. other: carry an image back so that it can be viewed
    1. image seen through an eye-piece or displayed as a full-colour on a TV screen
3. Big Advantage
  1. Surgeons can perform many operations by only cutting teeny holes in people (called keyhole surgery)
happen when
1. a wave travels through a dense substance like glass or water towards a less dense substance like air
if the angle of incidence is
1. Less than Critical angle
  1. most of the light passes out
  2. little bit is internally reflected
2. equal to Critical angle
  1. emerging ray comes out along the surface
  2. quite a bit of internal reflection
3. greater than Critical Angle
  1. No light comes out
  2. All internally reflected i.e. total internal reflection

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Total Internal Reflection

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	Created by Simana Gurung about 9 years ago