Question

You hace a piece of zircon. A light besm from inside the zircon is incidental at the boundary with air at an angle of 35 degrees. Does the linghr undergo total internal reflection? Draw a picture of the zircon and light beam, and show your calculations.

Answer 1

Angle of incidence,

Refractive index of Zircon ,

Refractive index of air,

Critical angle,

Total internal Reflection will only occur if angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle, in this case it does.

Hence the  light beam from inside the zircon will be face total internal reflection at the air boundary, as shown in hte image below.