Why does a straw look bent in water?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ravsterphysics
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Water
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
3 replies · 14K views
ravsterphysics
Messages
57
Reaction score
1

Homework Statement


https://www.highlightskids.com/media/kids/highlightskids/images/thumbs/sciQuestions/sq1012_put-a-straw-in-a-glass-of-water_main.jpg

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution



From my understanding, this has to do with refraction. Here's my answer:

-----
Light usually travels in a straight line to our eyes but if the light goes through a different medium, it changes direction.

So as we look at the straw in the glass, the light from the top part of the straw travels straight to our eyes whereas the part of the straw that's underwater has light that is refracted since it goes from air to water, back to air again, so the light travels to the eye at a slightly different angle therefore making the straw look bent.
-----

The part that's not quite clicking with me is, so what if the angle to our eyes has changed? Why does that mean the straw now looks bent?

I've been through a few videos but they don't seem to describe why exactly this happens.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Physics news on Phys.org
ravsterphysics said:
whereas the part of the straw that's underwater has light that is refracted since it goes from air to water, back to air again, so the light travels to the eye at a slightly different angle therefore making the straw look bent.

The light from the part of the straw that's underwater does not start out in air, but in water. So it's just water-glass-air. Light from the straw that's above the water goes air-glass-air.

ravsterphysics said:
The part that's not quite clicking with me is, so what if the angle to our eyes has changed? Why does that mean the straw now looks bent?

It would be very beneficial to draw a diagram and do a simple raytrace from parts of the straw to your eye. Do you know how to do that?
 
Drakkith said:
The light from the part of the straw that's underwater does not start out in air, but in water. So it's just water-glass-air. Light from the straw that's above the water goes air-glass-air.
It would be very beneficial to draw a diagram and do a simple raytrace from parts of the straw to your eye. Do you know how to do that?

Here's a diagram I've drawn based on what I've read so far.
WhatsApp Image 2017-01-12 at 16.38.36.jpeg


So the object is actually at 'object 1' but due to refraction the observer ( and because the brain judges the image location to be where where light rays appear to originate from) deems the object to be at 'object 2'.

Is that correct?
 
ravsterphysics said:
Here's a diagram I've drawn based on what I've read so far.
View attachment 111455

So the object is actually at 'object 1' but due to refraction the observer ( and because the brain judges the image location to be where where light rays appear to originate from) deems the object to be at 'object 2'.

Is that correct?
You do not seem to have taken in what Drakkith wrote. Your diagram shows the light going air-glass-air, but, as seen in the picture, the part of the straw above the water only appears slightly displaced.
Draw a diagram showing what happens for the part of the straw below the water level. Label all the angles to the normal and consider the relationships between them.