A ray of light traveling in a rarer medium meets the surface of another denser medium non perpendicularly. While entering the second medium at the point of incidence it :

Foundation

Physics Foundation

Refraction and parallel slab

Light

Question

A ray of light traveling in a rarer medium meets the surface of another denser medium non perpendicularly. While entering the second medium at the point of incidence it :

bends towards the normal.

bends away from the normal.

does not enter the second medium at all.

goes straight into the second medium.

LiveFree JEE Main Previous Year Online Papers Live Free JEE Advance Previous Year Online Papers

College PredictorLive

Know your College Admission Chances Based on your Rank/Percentile, Category and Home State.

Get your JEE Main Personalised Report with Top Predicted Colleges in JoSA

When light travels from a rarer medium (like air) to a denser medium (like glass or water) at an angle, it slows down. This change in speed causes the light ray to change direction, a phenomenon called refraction.

According to Snell's Law: $n_{1} \sin θ_{1} = n_{2} \sin θ_{2}$ , where $n_{1}$ and $n_{2}$ are the refractive indices of the rarer and denser media respectively. Since $n_{2} > n_{1}$ , the angle of refraction $θ_{2}$ is smaller than the angle of incidence $θ_{1}$ . This means the ray bends towards the normal line.

Final answer: bends towards the normal.