Science Experiments

Question: Can I measure refraction of light in centimeters?

in this science experiment, It said to measure the angle of refraction with a metric ruler…I measured the refraction of light though water, white vinegar and vegetable oil.
do these results sound accurate?

Water- 0.5 centimeters
Veg. Oil- 1 cm.
Vinegar- 0.75 cm.
I’m only going into 9th grade, so I don’t know anything about Snell’s law or even much about refraction. This is my first physics class…

Answer: You can’t measure an angle with a linear ruler. There is no such thing as a metric angle. Measure angles with a protractor which reads in degrees or whatever its Calibration is.

You CAN measure a trig function of an angle with a ruler. Let the angle to be measured be one of the angles of a right triangle. Measure the length of 2 of the sides of the triangle and use the lengths to compute the sine, cosine, or tangent of the angle. Since Snell’s law normally involves the sine of the angle of refraction, it would make sense to divide the side opposite the angle by the hypotenuse; this would give the sine of the angle directly. BTW, when doing this you can use any kind of ruler available; the division cancels the units, whether they be cm, in, pica, etc…..

Keep up the good work……

Learn Science through Home Experiments in Kannada – Bend a Beam of Light