please help no one is answering my question this is due tommorow!!!!! A student places a number two pencil in a glass of water and i apprears to be larger using what you know about optical systems explain why when an obkject is immersed it looks bigger in real life

Question

please help no one is answering my question this is due tommorow!!!!! A student places a number two pencil in a glass of water and i apprears to  be larger using what you know about optical systems  explain why when an obkject is immersed it looks bigger in real life

isabel☺ · Answer

the basic difference in dendity of water and air above causes it to happen when light travels from one lighter medium (air) to other denser one(water) 
When light passes from one medium into a second medium, the light path bends. Refraction takes place. The refraction occurs only at the boundary. Once the light has crossed the boundary between the two media, it continues to travel in a straight line.the direction of that line is different than it was in the former medium. If when sighting at an object, light from that object changes media on the way to your eye, a visual distortion is likely to occur. This visual distortion is witnessed if you look at a pencil submerged in a glass half-filled with water. As you sight through the side of the glass at the portion of the pencil located above the water's surface, light travels directly from the pencil to your eye. Since this light does not change medium, it will not refract. (Actually, there is a change of medium from air to glass and back into air. Because the glass is so thin and because the light starts and finished in air, the refraction into and out of the glass causes little deviation in the light's original direction.) As you sight at the portion of the pencil which was submerged in the water, light travels from water to air (or from water to glass to air). This light ray changes medium and subsequently undergoes refraction. As a result, the image of the pencil appears to be broken. Furthermore, the portion of the pencil which is submerged in water appears to be wider than the portion of the pencil which is not submerged. These visual distortions are explained by the refraction of light...u can look on google fr details...

mathmate · Answer

Isabel☺ Well done, in case you forgot to cite your reference, here it is. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/Lesson-1/Refraction-and-Sight Please remember to cite references in the future.

candycove · Answer

^^^