Question

A pencil when dipped in water in a glass tumbler appears to be bent at the interface of air and water will the pencil appears to be bent to the same extent if instead of water we use liquid like kerosene or turpentine support your answer with reason

Answer 1

This is indeed a very good question.

here's your answer

A pencil dipped in water in a glass appears to be bent at the interface of air and water due to refraction of light. The refraction of light occurs because the speed of light changes when it goes from one medium to another. Therefore,the pencil will not appear to bend to the same extent when it is dipped in kerosene or turpentine. This is because the refractive index of kerosene or turpentine is different than refractive index of water and hence the speed of light will be different in kerosene than water.

As kerosene and turpentine are even optically denser than water , due to increased refractive index,the pencil will appear to be bend more in kerosene and turpentine.


Hope helped.

Answer 2

The answer is from the extend of the effect is different from different pair of media. These observation indicates that light dies not travels in the same direction in all media. It appears that when traveling obliquely from one medium (rarer) to another (denser),the direction of the propagation of the light in the second medium changes. This phenomenon is known as refraction of light