Skip to Content Go to sign in Skip to Primary Navigation Skip to Secondary Navigation Skip to Page Navigation Skip to Header Navigation Skip to Footer Navigation Read more about accessability options and our navigation

Physics Classroom is making strides to make our site accessible to everyone. Our site contains 6 navigation areas. The Primary, Secondary, and Page Level navigations have a screen reader version of their nav structure that allows using the left and right keys to navigate sibling navigation items, and up or down keys to navigate parent or child navigation items. The others can be navigated using tabs. The Primary Navigation handles the first 2 levels of site pages. The Secondary (which is not always available) handles the 3rd and 4th level of structure. The Page level navigation allows you to navigate the current page's headings quickly. The Header Navigation contains the Light/Dark Mode toggle, Search, Notifications and account login. The Breadcrumb Navigation contains the breadcrumb of the current page. If the current page has a breadcrumb, you can get to it by skipping to the content and tabbing in reverse (shift plus tab). The Footer Navigation contains links such as Privacy, Contact, about and terms. Some resources contain an Audio Player that can be activated by holding down the T key for 3 seconds, and then using K to pause and resume. While not every area of Physics Classroom is usable purely from keyboard and screen reader, we are committed to continue work on making this possible. If you have questions or need additional help, please use this link to contact us.

Return to screen reader navigation

Total Internal Reflection - Questions 12 Help

Total internal reflection (TIR) involves the reflection of all of the light that approaches the boundary with another material. There are two requirements for TIR:
  1. The angle of incidence must be sufficiently large (i.e., greater than the so-called critical angle).
  2. The incident light must be in the more dense material heading towards the least dense material.

There are three similar versions of this question. Here is one of those versions:
 

Version 1:

Medium 1 is more dense than medium 2. The critical angle for the boundary is 50°. In which diagram(s) below will the incident ray undergo total internal reflection? Tap on all that apply.
 

Know the Rule
You are given three diagrams and you have to determine which diagram displays an incident ray that will undergo total internal reflection. There are two requirements; you can read about them in the Fundamentals section (above). The first requirement has to do with the relationship between the angle of incidence and the critical angle. The angle of incidence must be greater than the critical angle. These angles are measured relative to the normal line (the line drawn perpendicular to the boundary.) A protractor is provided; it has markings at 15° increments. Beginning at the normal line, measure the angle out to the incident ray. If it is not greater than the stated critical angle, then you can rule out that diagram.

The second requirement is that the incident light must be in the more dense of the two media. Density information is given for each diagram. Go one by one through the three diagrams and identify the diagrams in which the incident light is in the more dense medium. By the time you have considered these two conditions, there should be only one diagram that has met both requirements for TIR. Select that as your answer.

Try the links below to our Tutorial for more information about total internal reflection:

Total Internal Reflection

The Critical Angle

Return to Screen Reader Navigation