Index of Refractions

QUESTION

How Does Light Refract Differently When Traveling Through Different Media VS Air?

HYPOTHESIS

I think that if the light was to travel through a substance than it will travel slower but if it travels through air it will go faster. So I believe that air is going to let the light travel faster than the substances.

PROCEDERE

• 1. Gather all my needed materials

  2. Fill see through containers with the different types of liquid

  3. Fold a clean sheet of paper in half.

  4. Place one of the containers on the folded sheet of paper so the centerline of the container is on the fold.

  5. Trace the outline of the container onto the paper with the pencil.

  6. I’ll then use a colored marker to make a small dot on the edge of the sheet. This is where I will aim the laser. This dot should be on the same side as the fold, at least 1.5 inches from the fold.

  7. Then i’ll lay the laser down on the table or counter top and adjust the beam so it enters the page at the colored dot I made and hits the container at the center line fold.

  8. Turn the lights off to make it easier to see the laser beam.

  9. Mark the laser beam path in and out of the object with a few dots using the pencil.

  10. Then i'll use the protractor to measure the angle of refraction and angle of incidence. Record the data and include any observations.

  11. Repeat the steps

CONCLUSION

Overall my science fair experiment was very accurate. When testing for the speed of light everything was fair and even. If I could improve my experiment I would’ve tested it with more substances, or try a different method in measuring the travel and seeing if there would be a difference. Due to my observations I proved my hypothesis to be correct. For instance I predicted that light would travel faster through air and my data proved me right. Throughout my testing I noticed that the more dense the liquid is the slower the light will travel through. Air had the refraction of 1 therefor it had the lowest average, meaning it traveled the fastest through light.

ABSTRACT

How Does Light Refract Differently When Traveling Through Different Media VS Air?

For this years Science Fair I have decided to experiment on how fast light will travel in different media compared to air. I choose this experiment because I thought it would be interesting to learn about how light travels different through different liquids. I predicted that the light would travel slower when going through different substances and it will travel faster when going through air. Therefore I hypothesized that the light would travel faster through air.

To begin my experimenting I filled multiple small see through containers with my following liquids: jello, oil, water, and air. After completing this I folded a piece of paper in half and placed my container in the center. I then traced the container and colored a dot on the edge of the paper that was around 1.5 inches away from the fold. Then I laid the laser down on the table, adjusted the beam so it entered the dot I made and then made sure it hit the container at the center fold line. After doing this I marked the laser beam path in and out of the object with a few dots using the pencil. Lastly I used the protractor to measure the angle of refraction and angle of incidence.

The data showed that light traveled faster through air than through different substances. For instance, I calculated my final test answers with Snell’s Law to find the index of refraction. Firstly the total average of air’s refraction was 1. The average index of refraction for water was 1.32. Then the average total of refraction for oil was 1.48. Lastly the final average for jello was around 1.67. Since the jello had the highest average in the index of refraction it traveled the slowest compared to the other substances. And since air had the refraction of 1 it traveled the fastest when being tested. Therefore my data shows that the more dense the substance is the slower the light will travel through it .

The results in my project proved that my hypothesis was correct. I predicted that the light would travel faster through air compared to the other substances. My experiment was accurate because I used the same amount of liquid for each container, and the laser was pointed at the same spot. If I could improve my experiment I could’ve tested more substances. From my science fair project I learned that it was sort of time consuming, it took a lot of concentration when measuring for the angles, the math was very frustrating, but overall it was fun to learn about this.