What is the effect of increasing the angle of incidence beyond the critical angle?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the angle of incidence beyond the critical angle?
Increased refraction
Decreased reflection
Total internal reflection
No effect
Increasing the angle of incidence beyond the critical angle results in total internal reflection, preventing any refraction into the second medium.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: What is the effect of increasing the angle of incidence beyond the critical angle?
Solution: Increasing the angle of incidence beyond the critical angle results in total internal reflection, preventing any refraction into the second medium.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what the angle of incidence is. It is the angle at which a light ray hits a surface.
Step 2: Learn about the critical angle. This is the maximum angle of incidence at which light can still pass into a second medium.
Step 3: Know that when the angle of incidence is equal to the critical angle, light refracts at 90 degrees along the boundary.
Step 4: Realize that if the angle of incidence is increased beyond the critical angle, light cannot pass into the second medium.
Step 5: Understand that instead of refracting, the light reflects back into the first medium. This is called total internal reflection.