Shown in the photographs below are a top view and a side view of an aluminum rod with much of the rod inserted into a tank of water. The only problem with these photographs is that the part of the photograph showing the rod in the water has been masked out.

 The drawings below show three different versions of how the photographs might appear if the mask were not present. Your task is to identify which of the three options for each view is correct.

The correct top view of the rod in the water tank is:

 

• (a) A
• (b) B
• (c) C

 

The correct side view of the rod in the water tank is:

 

• (a) A
• (b) B
• (c) C 

 

After September 25, 2014 click Read More for the answer

 

The answers are: A for the top view, and B for the side view, as seen by comparing the actual photographs with the drawings below each. 

 

 

Note that any light ray visible from the point above the tank from which the photograph was taken will refract away from the normal as it leaves the water, raising the apparent location of the rod. Because the front photograph is taken looking perpendicular to the wall of the tank, there is no bending (refraction) of the light rays as they leave the tank, so no apparent bending of the rod is observed from this view.

Try to explain all of the reflections and refractions from the two ends of the tank and the back (right) surface as seen in the photograph at the left.