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Question
Explain ‘mirage’ as an illustration of refraction.
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Solution
- On a hot, clear, sunny day, along a level road, there appears a pond of water ahead of the road. However, if we physically reach the spot, there is nothing but the dry road, and the water pond again appears some distance ahead. This illusion is called a mirage.
- Mirages result from the refraction of light through a non-uniform medium.
- On a hot day the air in contact with the road is hottest, and as we go up, it gets gradually cooler. The refractive index of air thus decreases with height. Hot air tends to be less optically dense than cooler air, which results in a non-uniform medium.
- Light travels in a straight line through a uniform medium but refracts when travelling through a non-uniform medium.
- Thus, the ray of light coming from the top of an object gets refracted while travelling downwards into less optically dense air and becomes more and more horizontal, as shown in the figure.
- As it almost touches the road, it bends (refracts) upward. Then onwards, upward bending continues due to denser air.
- As a result, for an observer, it appears to be coming from below, thereby giving an illusion of reflection from an (imaginary) water surface.
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