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Question

1) What is actually meant by total internal reflection ?Can this be explained by reflection of light by diamond?

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Solution

When light passes from one medium to other, it bends from its path which is called refraction. When a light ray passes from denser to rarer medium, at some angle of incidence it does not go out of the denser medium but just grazes along the boundary (i.e. angle of refraction = 90�). This angle of incidence is called critical angle.

Now, if you increase this angle of incidence, light ray is reflected back into the denser medium, which is called total internal reflection. The light ray is reflected every time it hits the boundary because angle if incidence is equal to angle of reflection, and is not able to come out of the medium. This phenomenon is called total internal reflection.

Optical fiber communication uses the principle of total internal reflection for transferring data through optical fibers.

Yes, Sparkling of diamond by reflection of light can be explained as follows:

Refractive index of diamond is very large and structure of diamond is such that when light enters into the diamond, there is a ‘total internal reflection’ in the diamond. That is, light reflected from one internal surface of diamond further reflect from other part of surface. This phenomenon is repeated several times. This phenomenon increases intensity of light inside the diamond. That’s why diamond shines brightly.


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