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I'm doing a project about any TIR phenomenon and was wondering if anyone has a cool idea of what to do. I talked with my teacher about mirages, but she wanted something that was a little more unique. However, I am currently having trouble finding other phenomenons. I would greatly appreciate any ideas.

Thutzell
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  • This greatly depends on what kind of equipment you have access to. – probably_someone Apr 26 '20 at 23:17
  • It is an online project because I'm currently out of school, so I would essentially be making a powerpoint about hypotheticals and presenting via zoom. –  Thutzell Apr 26 '20 at 23:24
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    Have you checked Wikipedia yet? The "Everyday examples" and "Applications" sections of the article on total internal reflection have several ideas, like, for example, Snell's window. – probably_someone Apr 26 '20 at 23:31
  • Check out Brewster's angle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster%27s_angle. It is really cool because it allows using polarization properties of reflected light to measure the refraction index (and this works even for non transparent materials), and thus you can infer the total internal reflection angle. If you can get a couple of polarizing filters you can probably do the whole experiment at home with an iPhone. – Maxim Umansky Apr 27 '20 at 00:16
  • Get you a red plastic bicycle reflector- the kind with a smooth outer surface and an inner surface embedded with little pyramidal shapes- and take it apart. you will find that the angles of those pyramidal shapes guarantee total internal reflection, thereby acting as a corner reflector (look this up on wikipedia) . That critical "corner angle" depends on the difference in the refractive index of the plastic and the air, and if you replace the air with a droplet of water placed on the pyramid side of the reflector, it stops being a reflector where it is wetted with water! – niels nielsen Apr 27 '20 at 04:12

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