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Q119 (IAS/1996) Science & Technology › Basic Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) › Geometrical optics Answer Verified

Total internal reflection can take place when light travels from

Result
Your answer: —  Â·  Correct: A
Explanation

Total internal reflection (TIR) occurs only when light travels from an optically denser medium into an optically rarer medium and the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle. A diamond (high refractive index) to ordinary glass (lower refractive index) is a denser-to-rarer interface, so rays inside the diamond can undergo TIR for sufficiently large incidence angles. By contrast, the other three choices (water → glass, air → water, air → glass) are transitions from a rarer to a denser medium (or otherwise do not satisfy the denser→rarer requirement), so they cannot produce TIR; for example, there is no total internal reflection for rays going from air into water.

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