Total Internal Reflection - Sixty Symbols

Professor Bowley demonstrates a few tricks involving waves and prisms - on various scales. More physics and astronomy at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• total
• reflection

[eltotoX]

That was pretty awesome, but I'd like for him to elaborate on the part where he said '/somehow/ leaks through this region' at the very end. I wonder what that 'somehow' means.

Also, we need a George interview!

[sixtysymbols]

@eltotoX:

Interview with George (along with the elusive Neil from periodicvideos) coming soon...

Will probably be posted to our nottinghamscience channel, so keep an eye on it (or better yet, subscribe)!

That's where we put all our extra behind-the-scenes stuff...

[joshuafrye182]

I've never heard tape called 'sticky back plastic'.

[danjoelabrenica]

i hate my school but i love this channel :D

[njimko23]

@PeidoLord - Snell's law gives the exit angle as a function of the ratio of indexes of refraction and also the angle of incidence. If the exit angle is greater than 90 degrees from normal, then the waves cannot go through and instead reflect.

I think the skipping over the air gap is because the microwaves set up areas of charge in the paraffin, and that induces a charge on the other side of the gap. That is a classical rather than specifically a quantum effect.

[juggaloryan3]

@watchmikereedy completely dark. the light gets lost as heat energy

[PeidoLord]

Does whether or not the waves get totally internally reflected depend on the relative densities of the materials?

[jagara1]

Please please - can you give us an explanation for what is actually happening...

[BULLBRANDDAN]

Is this because of Quantum Tunnelling?

[xanshriekal]

For a man who claims to not be an experimentalist, he sure does a lot of demos for us. :)

[chan625]

I liked the other vids but this one just ended with a question it asked!

[Vermin298]

why isnt there more stuff like this on tv? am i part of a minority that likes interesting sciency things?

[johncrwarner]

Is there a need to invoke QED to explain this - as the idea that a wave knows anything seems far to anthropomorphic for my taste - I have a feeling that there must be some probability of the photon being detected in different places. The second prism is thus changing the probabilities.