Physics
Draw a ray diagram to show the appearance of a stick partially immersed in water. Explain your answer.
Answer
The above figure shows a stick placed obliquely in water. The portion OP of the stick under water when seen from air appears to be shortened and raised up as OP'. This is due to refraction of light from water to air.
The rays of light coming from tip P of the stick when pass from water to air, bend away from the normal and appear to be coming from point P' which is the virtual image of the point P.
Thus, the part PO of the stick appears to be P'O.
Hence, the immersed part of the stick appears to be raised and therefore, bent at the point O at the surface of water and the stick XOP appears as XOP'.
Related Questions
Water in a pond appears to be only three-quarters of its actual depth.
(a) What property of light is responsible for this observation? Illustrate your answer with the help of a ray diagram.
(b) How is the refractive index of water calculated from its real and apparent depths?
A student puts his pencil into an empty trough and observes the pencil from the position as indicated in the figure.
(i) What change will be observed in the appearance of the pencil when water is poured into the trough?
(ii) Name the phenomenon which accounts for the above-started observation.
(iii) Complete the diagram showing how the student’s eye sees the pencil through water.
A fish is looking at a 1.0 m high plant at the edge of a pond. Will the plant appear to the fish shorter or taller than its actual height? Draw a ray diagram to support your answer.
A tank of water is viewed normally from above.
(a) State how does the depth of tank appears to change.
(b) Draw a labelled ray diagram to explain your answer.