Unit: Waves
Year: 1993 Question#: 46
Question: In the diagram below, a ray of monchramtic light(A) and a ray of polychromatice light(B) are both incident upon an air-glass interface.
Which phenomenon could occur with ray B, but not with ray A?
(1 ) dispersion
(2 ) reflection
(3 ) polarization
(4 ) refraction
What is this question really asking?
Explanation by: Yoshi A
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Answer 1
Dispersion
CORRECT- this answer is correct. Dispersion is just seperation of polychromatic waves into their components. However because light ray A is already monochromatic, it can not be seperated into different waves of light. However polychromatic wave (B) can be dispersed. This is because it is polychromatic.
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Answer 2
Reflection
INCORRECT - it doesn't matter if the light is polychromatic or monchromatic to see if it reflects. None the less, both light rays will reflect somewhat.
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Answer 3
Polarization
INCORRECT - you can polarize the light rays by just using a filter. It wouldn't matter if the light rays were monocramitic or polychromatic. Therefore you can omit this question.
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Answer 4
Refraction
INCORRECT
Refraction wouldn't occur if the incident angle was the same measure as the normal angle. However both rays are not perpendicular to the glass so refraction would occur. You can omit this as the answer.
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What's this question really asking?
What will happen to incidence light ray B but not with incidence light ray A when it hits the glass? return to top
