13 Optics

This section has some quite tricky concepts and really you need to look at the animations and play with the settings to get a feel for what happens to x when I change y etc..  You also need to learn the key diagrams as this will help your explanations. Finally look carefully at the derivations as they also will help you explain the tricky stuff.

13 Optics  (Main PPT)

13.1 Refraction of light

13_1_Refraction_Practical (refractive index of a glass or a perspex block)

13_1_snells_law (practical results)

Refraction of Light (Java Applet)

Reflection and Refraction of Light Waves (Explanation by Huygens’ Principle) (Java Applet)

Refraction Animation Shows Snell’s Law (Really Good)

13.2 More about refraction

13_2_Refractive_Index_Water_Prac (Refractive Index of Water)

13.3 Total internal reflection

13_3_Fiber_Optics_HTML (HTML summary)

13.4 Double slit interference

13_4_Youngs_Slits_Practical (Hard to make this practical work but interesting method)

Diffraction of Light by a Single Slit (Java Applet)

Interference of Light at a Double Slit (Java Applet)

13.5 More about interference

resolving power of eye (extension for interest)

13.6 Diffraction

136_Practical_Properties_of_micro (Practical investigation of properties of transverse waves

13.7 The diffraction grating

13_7_Diff_grate_prac (Investigation into diffration 1,2,3rd order for laser beam)

13_7_Laser_Diffraction_Results (example results for red neon laser)

13.7 Spectrometer setup (Instructions)

Here is a selection of FLV movies which will help with this unit. If you cannot see them you may need to update flash or your security settings…. (FLV will take a while to load)

Extra Reading…

Image Formation by Converging Lenses (Java Applet)

Refracting Astronomical Telescope (Java Applet)

http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics/light-and-radiation