Assignment 3: Refraction Questions

1. Question 68. The absolute refractive indices of glass and water are 4/3 and
3/2 respectively. If the speed of light in glass is 2 × 108 m/s, calculate the
speed of light in (i) vacuum, (ii) water.
2. The absolute refractive indices of glass and water are 1.5 and 1.33
respectively. In which medium does light travel faster? Calculate the ratio of
speeds of light in the two media.
3. To construct a ray diagram we use two light rays which are so chosen that it
is easy to know their directions after refraction from the lens. List these two
rays and state the path of these rays after refraction. Use these two rays to
locate the image of an object placed between ‘f’ and ‘2f’ of a convex lens.
4. (a) Water has refractive index 1.33 and alcohol has refractive index 1.36.
Which of the two medium is optically denser? Give reason for your answer.
(b) Draw a ray diagram to show the path of a ray of light passing obliquely
from water to alcohol.
(c) State the relationship between angle of incidence and angle of refraction
in the above case.
5. The refractive index of a medium V with respect to a medium ‘y’ is 2/3 and the
refractive index of medium ‘y’ with respect to medium ‘z’ is 4/3. Find the
refractive index of medium ‘z with respect to medium V. If the speed of light in
medium ‘x’ is 3 × 108 m s-1, calculate the speed of light in medium ‘y’.
6. State the laws of refraction of light. Explain the term absolute refractive index
of a medium’ and write an expression to relate it with the speed of light in
vaccum.
7. The image of an object formed by a lens is of magnification -1. If the distance
between the object and its image is 60 cm, what is the focal length of the
lens? If the object is moved 20 cm towards the lens, where would the image
be formed? State reason and also draw a ray diagram in support of your
answer.
8. If the image formed by a lens for all positions of the object placed in front of it
is always virtual, erect and diminished, state the type of the lens. Draw a ray
diagram in support of your answer. If the numerical value of focal length of
such a lens is 20 cm, find its power in new cartesian sign conventions.
9. The image of a candle flame placed at a distance of 40 cm from a spherical
lens is formed on a screen placed on the other side of the lens at a distance
of 40 cm from the lens. Identify the type of lens and write its focal length.
What will be the nature of the image formed if the candle flame is shifted 25
cm towards the lens? Draw a ray diagram to justify your answer.
10. What is the principle of reversibility of light? Show that the incident of light is
parallel to the emergent ray of light when light falls obliquely on a side of a
rectangular glass slab.
11. (a) Define the following terms :
(i) Power of lens
 (ii) Principal focus of a concave mirror
(b) Write the relationship among the object distance (u), image distance (v)
and the focal length (f) of a
(i) Spherical lens
(ii) Spherical mirror
(c) An object is placed at a distance of 10 cm from optical centre of a convex
lens of focal length 15 cm. Draw a labelled ray diagram to show the formation
of image in this case
12. Rishi went to a palmist to show his palm. The palmist used a special lens for
this purpose.
(i) State the nature of the lens and reason for its use.
(ii) Where should the palmist place/hold the lens so as to have a real and
magnified image of an object?
(iii) If the focal length of this lens is 10 cm, the lens is held at a distance of 5
cm from the palm, use lens formula to find the position and size of the image.
13. (a) A 5 cm tall object is placed perpendicular to the principal axis of a convex
lens of focal length 20 cm. The distance of the object from the lens is 30 cm.
Find the position, nature and size of the image formed.
(b) Draw a labelled ray diagram showing object distance, image distance and
focal length in the above case.
14. Analyse the following observation table showing variation of image-distance
(v) with object-distance (u) in case of a convex lens and answer the questions
that follow without doing any calculations.

S. No. Object Distance w(cm) Image Distance v(cm)

1 -100 +25

2 -60 +30

3 -40 +40
 4 -30 +60

5 -25 +100

6 -15 +120

1 (a) What is the focal length of the convex lens? Give reason to justify your
answer.
(b) Write the serial number of the observation which is not correct. On what
basis have you arrived at this conclusion?
(c) Select an appropriate scale and draw a ray diagram for the observation at
2. Also find the approximate value of magnification.
15. (a) Draw a ray diagram to show the formation of image by a convex lens when
an object is placed in front of the lens between its optical centre and principal
focus.
(b) In the above ray diagram mark the object distance (u) and the image
distance (v) with their proper sign (+ve or -ve as per the new Cartesian sign
convention) and state how these distances are related to the focal length (f)
of the convex lens in this case.
(c) Find the power of a convex lens which forms a real and inverted image of
magnification -1 of an object placed at a distance of 20 cm from its optical
centre.
16. (a) Define optical centre of a spherical lens.
(b) A divergent lens has a focal length of 20 cm. At what distance should an
object of height 4 cm from the optical centre of the lens be placed so that its
image is formed 10 cm away from the lens. Find the size of the image also.
(c) Draw a ray diagram to show the formation of image in above situation.
17. At what distance from a concave lens of focal length 25 cm a 10 cm tall
object be placed so as to obtain its image at 20 cm from the lens. Also
calculate the size of the image formed. Draw a ray diagram to justify your
answer for the above situation and label it.
18. What is meant by power of a lens? Define its S.I. unit.
You have two lenses A and B of focal lengths + 10 and -10 cm respectively.
State the nature and power of each lens. Which of the two lenses will form a
virtual and magnified image of an object placed 8 cm from the lens? Draw a
ray diagram to justify your answer.
19. What is meant by the power of a lens ? What is its S.I. unit ? Name the type of
lens whose power is positive. The image of an object formed by a lens is real,
 inverted and of the same size as the object. If the image is at a distance of 40
cm from the lens, what is the nature and power of the lens? Draw ray diagram
to justify your answer
20. (a) Explain the following terms related to spherical lenses:
(i) optical centre
(ii) centres of curvature
(iii) principal axis (iv) aperture
(v) principal focus (vi) focal length
(b) A converging lens has focal length of 12 cm. Calculate at what distance
should the object be placed from the lens so that it forms an image at 48 cm
on the other side of the lens.