Terms, Concepts, and Questions to Start Background Research


Measuring Sugar Content of a Liquid with a Laser Pointer

Below you will find the background information you need to be successful in performing the above titled laboratory experiment. 

To do this project, you should do research that enables you to understand the following terms and concepts:

• index of refraction,
• density,
• prism,
• Snell's law.

Bibliography

• Here are some online sources of information on Snell's Law. Although you only need a basic understanding of how Snell's Law works for this project, more advanced sources are included for those who wish to gain a more thorough understanding about the mathematics behind Snell's Law and how it can be derived from Fermat's Principle of Least Time:
  • A simple summary of Snell's Law (the basic "plug in the numbers and calculate" version that's required for this project):
    Kaiser, P., 2005. "Snell's Law," The Joy of Visual Perception [accessed September 25, 2006] http://www.yorku.ca/eye/snell.htm.
  • A fairly comprehensive tutorial that builds an intuitive understanding of Snell's Law by using high school level math:
    Henderson, T., 2004. "The Mathematics of Refraction, Snell's Law," The Physics Classroom, Glenbrook South High School, Glenview, IL [accessed September 25, 2006] http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/Phys/Class/refrn/u14l2b.html.
  • (This one is only for highly advanced students!) A highly mathematical discussion of Snell's Law that includes its derivation from Fermat's Principle of Least Time (uses first-order differential calculus):
    Weisstein, E.W., 2006. "Snell's Law," Eric Weisstein's World of Science [accessed September 25, 2006]http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/SnellsLaw.html.
• Information on making the hollow prism for this project came from:
  Edmiston, M.D., 2001. "A Liquid Prism for Refractive Index Studies," Journal of Chemical Education 78(11):1479–1480, [accessed October 2, 2006] available online at: http://www.jce.divched.org/hs/Journal/Issues/2001/Nov/clicSubscriber/V78N11/p1479.pdf.
• The images illustrating refraction in the Introduction are from Robin Wood's page about the technicalities of making refractive index look correct in images that are rendered by software:
  Wood, R., 2003. "Refraction Index," [accessed October 2, 2006]http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/Gen3DTuts/Gen3DPages/RefractionIndex1.html.