Question

1. With the help of a diagram, show how when light falls obliquely on the side of a rectangular glass slab, the emergent ray is parallel to the incident ray.
2. Show the lateral displacement of the ray on the diagram.

Answer 1

In the following figure, a light ray travelling in air is incident on the rectangular glass slab. It gets refracted and bends towards the normal. Again, a change in direction occurs when the refracted ray travelling in glass emerges into air. Here, the light ray bends away from the normal. We see that the incident and emergent rays are parallel. These rays are parallel because the extent of bending on the opposite and parallel faces of the slab is equal and opposite.