When a beam of light meet the boundary between two different media,

some light is reflected back to the same media
(law of reflection)
some light is refracted to a different media
( law of refraction).

This java applet let you play with a thick lens.

For thin lens or mirror see the
    Thin Lens (converging/diverging lens/mirrors) java applet

How to play:

You can enter the index of refraction of the lens into the Text Field.

The gray ellipse area represents the thick lens.

You can click the left mouse button within one of four cyan circle around the lens

and drag the mouse button to change the shape of the lens.
You can click the circle at the center of the ellipse and drag the mouse left/right to move the lens horizontally.

Light beam entering from the left of the screen.

You can click at the beam and drag it up/down.

Hit Reset button for default conditions.

Approximate indices of refraction of various substance

 

Air	1.00029
ice	1.31
water	1.333
Ethyl alcohol	1.36
Fused quartz SiO2	1.4584
glass	1.5 - 1.6
diamond	2.417
Futile TiO2	2.907
Gallium phosphide	3.50

Your suggestions are highly appreciated! Please click hwang@phy03.phy.ntnu.edu.tw

Author¡GFu-Kwun Hwang, Dept. of physics, National Taiwan Normal University

Last modified : 

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