At what angle should a ray of light be incident on the face of a prism of refracting angle 60° so that it just suffers total internal reflection at the other face? The refractive index of the material of the prism is 1.524.
The incident, refracted, and emergent rays associated with a glass prism ABC are shown in the given figure.
Angle of prism, ∠A = 60°
Refractive index of the prism, µ = 1.524
$i_{1}=$ Incident angle
$r_{1}=$ Refracted angle
$r_{2}=$ Angle of incidence at the face $\mathrm{AC}$
e = Emergent angle = 90°
According to Snell’s law, for face AC, we can have:
$\frac{\sin e}{\sin r_{2}}=\mu$
$\sin r_{2}=\frac{1}{\mu} \times \sin 90^{\circ}$
$=\frac{1}{1.524}=0.6562$
$\therefore r_{2}=\sin ^{-1} 0.6562 \approx 41^{\circ}$
It is clear from the figure that angle $A=r_{1}+r_{2}$
$\therefore r_{1}=A-r_{2}=60-41=19^{\circ}$
According to Snell’s law, we have the relation:
$\mu=\frac{\sin i_{1}}{\sin r_{1}}$
$\sin i_{1}=\mu \sin r_{1}$
$=1.524 \times \sin 19^{\circ}=0.496$
$\therefore i_{1}=29.75^{\circ}$
Hence, the angle of incidence is 29.75°.