Abbe's refractometer.

Abstract
The aim of this practice was to prove that the relation between the concentration
of one fluid and his reflextion index has a linear relation. This is our result:
R = 0,998

Elas Muoz Olmo

Introduction:
The speed of electromagnetic waves in vacuum, c=2,99792458x10 m/s, is one
of the most important constants in physics.
The speed of waves changes accordingly to the optical properties of the particular
medium. It is always smaller than the speed of light in vacuum, v<c.
All materials are characterized by their hability to slow down the light waves.
We can define refractive index n which is diferent for each material like:
n = c/v
Refractive index n is equal to 1 for a vacuum and larger than 1 for any other
material .The refractive index of air is 1.0003 so we truncate it to 1.
When a wave pass through a surface between one transparent material and
another we call it refraction. It is described by Snell's Law:

n sin = n sin

We can obtain the critical angle when = 90 . In this case:

sin =

n
n

Abb refractometer working principle is based on critical angle. Sample is put

between two prisms - measuring and illuminating. Light enters sample from the
illuminating prism, gets refracted at critical angle at the bottom surface of
measuring prism, and then the telescope is used to measure position of the border
between bright and light areas. Moving the rotating knob to align the X mark in
the eyepiece with the shadow boundary separating the dark and bright areas seen
in the field of view.At this moment we read the refractive index from the scale
and we obtain the value of n of the sample.

Operative method:
We started picking up a dropper, three glass beakers, water, sugar balance and the
abbes refractometrer.
We put one or two drops of the liquid between the iluminating and measuring
prisms whose we want to know the refractive index.
Then, using the rotating knob we align the X mark in the eyepiece with the
shadow boundary separating the dark and brigth areas that we can see in the field
of view.
At this moment we can read the refractive index from the scale.
When we have read the refractive index, we clean the sample with a napkin.
We repeat this steps for each sample.

Calculus:
The next figure shows the plot of Concentration/Index:

Concentration/ Index
1,430

y = 0,173x + 1,332
R = 0,997

1,420
1,410
1,400
1,390
1,380

Concentration/ Index

1,370

Lineal (Concentration/ Index)

1,360
1,350
1,340
1,330
1,320
0,000

0,100

0,200

0,300

If our equation is =

0.001

0,400

, our

0,500

0,600

= 0.173 0.04 and

To calculate the Concentration I used next formula aplicated to

each concentration.

Concentration =

sugar
water
d sugar

(sugar) +

sugar
water
d water

= 1.332

for

(water)

The obtained results are in the next table:

Concentration concentration
0,000
0
0,050
2,53157E-05
0,099
2,47476E-05
0,194
2,44534E-05
0,299
2,45268E-05
0,394
2,80353E-05
0,483
2,87843E-05

n0,001
1,333
1,342
1,351
1,365
1,383
1,400
1,419

Sugar(0,05g) Water(0,05g)
0,00
10,00
0,50
9,95
1,00
10,10
2,00
10,30
3,00
10,50
4,00
10,15
5,00
10,35

The error of the balance was 0.05 g

Finally we obtain R=0.998 that means that is a linear relation between the
concentration and the refractive index as we want to probe.

References:
http://proyectodecalibracion.blogspot.com/2011/11/refractometro-abbe.html
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/refrn/Lesson-3/The-Critical-Angle
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refractometra
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ley_de_Snell

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