Critical Angle & Total Internal Reflection

Worksheet (2 pages) and Homework (1 page) (with answers) for Critical Angle and Total Internal Reflection. Including an explanation of light refracting away from the normal when leaving a denser medium, and how this relates to the critical angle. Calculations for working out the critical angle or refractive index when given one of those two values. Total internal reflection, its uses, and light ray diagrams for fibre-optic cables.

A corresponding presentation is free to use and embedded at physics.mrhatchard.co.uk in Section 4 (Waves).

Written for the Cambridge IGCSE Coordinated Sciences and Combined Sciences courses, but obviously a large content overlap with various GCSE courses also.