Menu
Physics Lesson 12.3.1 - Refraction in Water Waves as an Easier Way to Understand the Phenomenon of Light Refraction
Please provide a rating, it takes seconds and helps us to keep this resource free for all to use
Welcome to our Physics lesson on Refraction in Water Waves as an Easier Way to Understand the Phenomenon of Light Refraction, this is the first lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Refraction of Light, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
Refraction in Water Waves as an Easier Way to Understand the Phenomenon of Light Refraction
If we have a tank with two different levels of depth as shown in the figure below
and some linear waves are generated from right to left after filling the tank with water, the following pattern is observed.
During this simple experiment, we observe two things:
- Wavelength changes magnitude (in the specific case this magnitude increases) when moving from shallow to deep water; this can be observed by the increasing difference between two waves shown through the wave lines.
- Waves also change direction when the depth of water changes. In the specific case, the direction changes in such a way to fit the direction of the border between the two depth levels.
However, if accurate measurement are made, we will observe that frequency (the number of waves passing through a given point of the container in one second) doesn't change. From the equation of waves
we find that the speed of wave changes (here it increases) when moving in deeper water.
Hence, the only quantity which does not change during this process is the frequency; none from the other quantities (including amplitude) remains the same when any the medium feature (here the depth) change. Such a phenomenon is known as refraction of waves.
By definition, refraction is the change in direction of a wave passing from one medium to another or from a gradual change in the medium.
Our focus in this tutorial is in the refraction of light waves, which are discussed in the next paragraph.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 12.3.1 Refraction in Water Waves as an Easier Way to Understand the Phenomenon of Light Refraction. There are 7 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Refraction of Light, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
More Refraction of Light Lessons and Learning Resources
Whats next?
Enjoy the "Refraction in Water Waves as an Easier Way to Understand the Phenomenon of Light Refraction" physics lesson? People who liked the "Refraction of Light lesson found the following resources useful:
- Water Waves Feedback. Helps other - Leave a rating for this water waves (see below)
- Optics Physics tutorial: Refraction of Light. Read the Refraction of Light physics tutorial and build your physics knowledge of Optics
- Optics Revision Notes: Refraction of Light. Print the notes so you can revise the key points covered in the physics tutorial for Refraction of Light
- Optics Practice Questions: Refraction of Light. Test and improve your knowledge of Refraction of Light with example questins and answers
- Check your calculations for Optics questions with our excellent Optics calculators which contain full equations and calculations clearly displayed line by line. See the Optics Calculators by iCalculator™ below.
- Continuing learning optics - read our next physics tutorial: Interference and Diffraction of Light
Help others Learning Physics just like you
Please provide a rating, it takes seconds and helps us to keep this resource free for all to use
We hope you found this Physics lesson "Refraction of Light" useful. If you did it would be great if you could spare the time to rate this physics lesson (simply click on the number of stars that match your assessment of this physics learning aide) and/or share on social media, this helps us identify popular tutorials and calculators and expand our free learning resources to support our users around the world have free access to expand their knowledge of physics and other disciplines.