Lap report for AS1B subject Lab Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lap for AS1B subject - Lab Report Example Two angles are important in this perspective; the angle of refraction and the incident angle. Refractive index (RI) with regard to Snell’s Law provides a mathematical relationship between the incident angle and the angle of refraction. According to Snell’s Law In other cases the light travels in a perpendicular line and RI cannot be measured by comparing the two angles. In such a case one can measure the RI by getting the ratio of the Real Depth (RD) to the Apparent Depth (AD). For instance, when determining the RI of water one can insert a measurement ruler until it touches the bottom of a beaker of known height (RD), and then comparing it with the depth as seen by the eye (AD). The following experiment consists of two parts; the first part used fresh tap water while the second experiment used salty water. The aims of the experiment were to determine the refractive index of water and to establish whether the salinity of water affected its refractive index. The refractive indices of the first experiment as demonstrated in Table 1 indicate that there was minimal difference. The average refractive index for the first experiment was found to be 1.38. According to literature, the refractive index of water is averagely 1.3 (Freeman, 2003). In essence, the experimental results were closer to the results found in literature. The fact that the refractive index of water has a value greater than 1 implies that light travels much faster in air than in water. In essence, air is less dense than water and as light travels from air to water the speed reduces. The average refractive index for saline water was found to be 1.51 indicating that saline water was denser than tap water. Another realization is that as the saline concentration of the water was being increased, the refractive index also increa sed. The results imply that an increase in salinity causes an increase in the density of water. When salt is dissolved in