- #1
timetraveller123
- 621
- 45
ok so recently i was doing dispersion of light and all of sudden something that i always took for granted came across the fact that blue light refracts more than red light then i recalled snells law and realized that it had no terms with the quantity of frequency in it (n sin θ = c) then i decided to consult my physics teacher and he told me the refractive index of material varies with the frequency of the light and that came as a huge shock to me i decided to google more about it
but many sites just state n = ## \frac{\lambda_o}{\lambda}## but that just seems to be double reasoning so i googled more and found out something about electrons vibration and transimission of light energy
so this is my understanding thus far
in vacuum speed of light is just ## \frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu_o \varepsilon_o}}##
so in any other medium the permittivity and permeability would have have to be replaced accordingly
why would those constants be affected by frequencies?
another reasoning was to think of light as constantly exciting electrons
every electron in the medium has its own resonance frequency
and the light that comes along has its own frequency
so essentially this is just a driven harmonic oscillator (was truly amazed there )
it is also my understanding that the delay in absorption and emission of the light is what is "slowing down the light"
so now my question is
- when the light is not of resonant frequency what exactly happens to the light i know it gets absorbed and emitted but what exactly is happening in the middle and what happens as the frequency changes
- when the light is of resonant frequency then what happens
any conceptual understanding will be useful and math would also be appreciated
but many sites just state n = ## \frac{\lambda_o}{\lambda}## but that just seems to be double reasoning so i googled more and found out something about electrons vibration and transimission of light energy
so this is my understanding thus far
in vacuum speed of light is just ## \frac{1}{\sqrt{\mu_o \varepsilon_o}}##
so in any other medium the permittivity and permeability would have have to be replaced accordingly
why would those constants be affected by frequencies?
another reasoning was to think of light as constantly exciting electrons
every electron in the medium has its own resonance frequency
and the light that comes along has its own frequency
so essentially this is just a driven harmonic oscillator (was truly amazed there )
it is also my understanding that the delay in absorption and emission of the light is what is "slowing down the light"
so now my question is
- when the light is not of resonant frequency what exactly happens to the light i know it gets absorbed and emitted but what exactly is happening in the middle and what happens as the frequency changes
- when the light is of resonant frequency then what happens
any conceptual understanding will be useful and math would also be appreciated