Lec 1 12122023 Interfernce

Waves and Oscillations
Course Code – PHY 230

Class: Bachelor of Science in Physics
Semester: 3rd -SP22, Secession (A)
Week: 14th (11-15) Dec

Lecture: 1st
Instructor: Dr. Muhammad Ajmal khan
Email: ajmalkhan@cuilahore.edu.pk
Department of Physics
COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI),
Lahore Campus
The field of ray optics (sometimes called geometric
optics) involves the study of the propagation of light.
Ray optics assumes light travels in a fixed direction in a
straight line as it passes through a uniform medium and
changes its direction when it meets the surface of a
different medium or if the optical properties of the medium
are nonuniform in either space or time.
In our study of ray optics, we use what is called the ray
approximation.
To understand this approximation, first notice that the rays
of a given wave are straight lines perpendicular to the
wave fronts as illustrated in Figure 35.3 for a plane wave.
In the ray approximation, a wave moving through a
medium travels in a straight line in the direction of its rays.
If the wave meets a barrier in which
there is a circular opening whose
diameter is much larger than the
wavelength as in Figure 35.4a, the
wave emerging from the opening
continues to move in a straight line
(apart from some small edge effects);
hence, the ray approximation is valid.
If the diameter of the opening is on the
order of the wavelength as in Figure
35.4b, the waves spread out from the
opening in all directions. This effect,
called diffraction.
Finally, if the opening is much smaller
than the wavelength, the opening can
be approximated as a point source of
waves as shown in Fig.35.4c.
Similar effects are seen when waves encounter an opaque object of dimension d.
In that case, when the object casts a sharp shadow.
This approximation is very good for the study of mirrors, lenses, prisms, and
associated optical instruments such as telescopes, cameras, and eyeglasses.
Analysis Model: Wave Under
Reflection
We introduced the concept of reflection of waves in a topic of waves on strings in Section 16.4.
As with waves on strings, when a light ray traveling in one medium encounters a boundary with
another medium, part of the incident light is reflected.
For waves on a one-dimensional string, the reflected wave must necessarily be restricted to a
direction along the string. For light waves traveling in three dimensional space, no such
restriction applies and the reflected light waves can be in directions different from the direction
of the incident waves.
Figure 35.5a shows several rays of a beam of light incident on a smooth, mirror-like, reflecting
surface. The reflected rays are parallel to one another as indicated in the figure. The direction of
a reflected ray is in the plane perpendicular to the reflecting surface that contains
the incident ray.
Reflection of light from such a smooth surface is called specular reflection. If the reflecting
surface is rough as in Figure 35.5b, the surface reflects the rays not as a parallel set but in
various directions. Reflection from any rough surface is known as diffuse reflection.
A surface behaves as a smooth surface as long as the surface variations are much smaller than
the wavelength of the incident light.
The difference between these two kinds of reflection explains why it is more
difficult to see while driving on a rainy night than on a dry night. If the road is
wet, the smooth surface of the water specularly reflects most of your headlight
beams away from your car (and perhaps into the eyes of oncoming drivers). When
the road is dry, its rough surface diffusely reflects part of your headlight beam
back toward you, allowing you to see the road more clearly.
Your bathroom mirror exhibits specular reflection, whereas light reflecting from
this page experiences diffuse reflection.
we restrict our study to specular reflection and use the term reflection to mean
specular reflection.
Consider a light ray traveling in air and
incident at an angle on a flat, smooth
surface as shown in Figure 35.6. The
incident and reflected rays make angles
u1 and u9 1, respectively, where the
angles are measured between the
normal and the rays. (The normal is a
line drawn perpendicular to the surface
at the point where the incident ray
strikes the surface.)
Experiments and theory show that the
Because reflection of waves from an interface
angle of reflection equals the angle of between two media is a common phenomenon, we
incidence: identify an analysis model for this situation: the
This relationship is called the law of wave under reflection.
Equation 35.2 is the mathematical representation of
reflection. this model.
•If the angle between two mirrors is 90°, the reflected beam returns to the
source
parallel to its original path, This phenomenon, called retroreflection, has
many practical applications.
Analysis
Model:
Wave
Under
Refraction
Index of Refraction
Huygens’s Principle

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Waves and Oscillations

Course Code – PHY 230

Week: 14th (11-15) Dec

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