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Total internal reflection

Saturday, August 30, 2008
Many of my fellow bloggers reflect intensely about themselves and write deep heavy posts about such internal reflections. I always wondered why I don't do that. Today I realised that its because of a phenomenon of physics - Total internal reflection.

Suppose you shine a beam of light on a glass surface. Some of it will get reflected back. Some of it will be absorbed by the glass and some will continue to pass into the glass after bending by some angle (refraction). However, when light tries to do the opposite, i.e. go from glass to air if its angle of incidence is larger than some value called 'critical angle of incidence', whole of it gets reflected back inside the glass. None of it comes out in the air. This is called total internal reflection. It happens only when both these conditions are satisfied:

1)Light is trying to go from a denser medium to a rarer medium (e.g. glass to air).
AND
2) Its angle of incidence is larger than a certain critical angle.

Now, you see, I am a thick skulled being (figuratively).
A thick skull is obviously a denser medium. So when some thought of self-enLIGHTenment tries to come out of my mind, it has to cross the thick skull, coming from my brain. Thus it has to go from rarer (very few neurons in the whole big cranium) to denser medium (thick skull). This is opposite of the required condition 1). Since comdition is not met,

Total Internal Reflection

never occurs ;). I can't violate natural laws of physics can I?

P.S: What do you call a geeky reptile?
A : A gecko?
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12 comments :

  1. Pretty enlightening I must say. I am getting a vague idea about reptiles and their mani (Hindi wala) now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. quite enLIGNTeninig ... :)

    hehe "Many of my fellow bloggers reflect intensely about themselves and write deep heavy posts about such internal reflections." kin fello bloggers ki baat kar rahe ho .. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. @shwetank

    O! After many days!
    What 'mani' (whichever wala)?
    Let me also know a thing or two about reptiles. Even I am Stupid when it comes to reptiles

    So wats up. Do some Blogshog updating man!

    @chinami

    Arre almost saare bloggers wahi toh karte hain. Its all about 'my mind','my brain','reflections','thoughts','life','love','where am I headed' etc. Ek ka naam loonga toh doosre naaraz ho jayenge (not that any of them come here though :) )

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hahahhahahaha .... to be sure we need to cut u r skull and check whether really inner part is rarer...
    or 2nd condition is not satisfying..

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.twisted-dna.com/2008/08/20/physical-disability/

    check this link..( if u haven't seen it earlier) .. here the blogger had shared various law of physics

    ReplyDelete
  6. Read this:
    http://www.manavdharam.org/books_mags/online_magazines/md/2007/nov_07/satpalji2.html

    If light cannot stay inside, it will come out and illuminate the world. :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. **I can't violate natural laws of physics can I?

    mebbe its not a 'violation' for some others..?

    Keshi.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @nitin
    for first comment:
    Nope destructive testing is not allowed ;P . Come up with some non-destructive ingenious way. Ultrasonic waves or something.

    for second comment
    yeah I used to visit that blog while it was on blogspot. I remenber she (yes I think the blogger's a she) is doing some MS or PhD in US). Now my workplace has blockes it since its on personal url. Funnily blogspot is not blocked here.

    @shwetank
    Yaar yeh link toh open nahin ho raha directly. They are saying go back to home page and open lenk by link.

    Anyways aise darawney darawney 'prawachan' waaley links padhkey mein kya karunga? (Kyunki mein toh aise likh sakta hoon ;) )


    //If light cannot stay inside, it will come out and illuminate the world. :D

    Kambakht wahi toh problem hai, thick skull sey air mein light aati hi nahin. Total internal reflection ho jata hai.

    @keshi
    No theose other bloggers are not violating any laws. Their brains are dense and they are not as thick skulled beings as me. So total internal reflection can easily happen :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. dost maine NDT theek se padhe nahin thi engg mein .. soocha tha Destructive testing padh lee hein NDT options mein nikal jaayega ;)

    Abt the 2nd one r u sure blogger is She not he.. coz some of the post written by her/him is quite difficult for girl to imagine.. (might be she is penning down somebody else thots ??)

    ReplyDelete
  10. @nitin

    Thats your mistake. Why should my skull suffer being cut open if you have not studied NDT. Jao hum yeh contract tumhari company se chhin lete hain :P

    //Abt the 2nd one r u sure blogger is She not he..

    As I said, this site is blocked over here. So you verify and tell me.

    //coz some of the post written by her/him is quite difficult for girl to imagine..

    Are you underestimating what a girl can think? What is your statement supposed to mean. Please explain.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just stumbled onto this blog... and saw that quite witty ur thots are... as i turned some pages of ur blog..
    well... Total Internal Reflection?? gr8...
    u mean to say ur head is made of a transparent medium of higher density than the surrounding matter? hehehehe...

    ReplyDelete

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