Refraction Definition and 726 Threads

Oh btw, this is not a homework question! just got it somewhere. Light travels in a medium of n=1.2 at c1. what is its speed in a medium of n=1.6? a)1.3c1 b)0.67c1 c)2c1 d)1.7c1 e)0.55c1 my solution: using n=c/v, 1.2 = c/c1. also, 1.6=c/c2. c2= c/1.6. but c=1.2c1 So, c2=(1.2/1.6)...

hi everyone, I've got another question. i feel good about my methods, but I'm getting an incorrect answer. Homework Statement A ray of light impinges at a 60° angle of incidence on a glass pane of thickness 6 mm and index of refraction 1.50. The light is reflected by a mirror that touches...

Homework Statement The figure shows a light ray incident on a glass cylinder where h = R/9. At what angle α will the ray be refracted? (Image Attached) Homework Equations n(sin(theta))= N(sin(THETA)) The Attempt at a Solution I'm not sure how to attack this problem. I've...

Homework Statement If the object distance in the following picture were 8.0 m and the image distance were 2.0 m, and the object is 0.50 m tall, how tall is the image. Ho = 0.5 So = 2.0 Si = 8.0 Homework Equations Ho / Hi = So / -Si In order these variables are hight object, hight image...

Homework Statement The problem is essentially (I've rephrased it, but this is what it is asking) show that [ (2n1cosa) / (n2cosa + n1cosb) ]2 is equal to (sin2a sin2b) / (sin2(a+b)cos2(a-b)) where these are for refraction through materials and satisfy n1sina=n2sinb 2. The...

Homework Statement A 4.0m wide swimming pool is filled to the top. The bottom of the pool becomes completely shaded in the afternoon when the sun is 20 degrees above the horizon. How deep is the pool? Homework Equations \theta = arcsin(n2/n1) n1sin\theta1= n2sin\theta2 The...

Homework Statement The glass core of an optical fiber has an index of refraction 1.62. The index of refraction of the cladding is 1.47. What is the maximum angle a light ray can make with the wall of the core if it is to remain inside the fiber? Homework Equations theta = sin ^-1...

I find now that there are several effects on light that are not explained by QED. This surprises me since Feynman was so fond of saying that it covered nearly all the physics we experience. So I expected to get an explanation for reflection when I watched his lectures or read his book on QED...

1. A ray of light is incident onto the interface between material 1 and material 2. There is a figure, which is a standard figure of a ray in medium of n1 striking an interface where medium2 (with n2) meets medium1. As is typical, some of the light is reflected and some is refracted. The...

Now, I've asked about this on some other forums: and it seems all people are able to to is repeat what happens at refraction, but not actually to answer the question: [PLAIN]http://ryansuchocki.co.uk/media/tmp.jpg From the above image, why does the first sittuation occur rather than the...

Homework Statement The index of refraction for a diamond for red light, 656 nm, is 2.410, while that for blue light, 434 nm, is 2.450. Suppose white light is incident on the diamond at 30.0 degrees. Find the angles of refraction for these two colors. Homework Equations n1sinangle of...

Homework Statement A piece of glass has the shape shown in the below diagram. The index of refraction of the glass is 1.45. Find the critical angle for the glass. Sketch the path of the light ray until it emerges from the side of the figure and find the last angle of refraction...

Homework Statement 1. The index of refraction for water is 1.33 and that of glass is 1.50. a. What is the critical angle for a glass-water interface?b. In which medium is the light ray incident for total internal reflection?Homework Equations nisin\varthetai=nrsin\varthetarThe Attempt at a...

Homework Statement 1. What property of light causes the sunlight to reach the Earth before the sun actually appears over the horizon? 2. What is the wavelength, in water, of blue light whose wavelength is 4.5 x 10^2 nm in air? 3.The speed of a certain liquid in a certain liquid is 3/4...

Homework Statement The critical angle of refraction for calcite is 68.4 (degrees) when it forms a boundary with water. Use this information to determine the speed of light in calcite. Homework Equations n=c/v n= Index of refraction c= Speed of light in a vacuum v= Speed of light in...

Ok so I am not sure how to do this problem the only equation i am familiar with that might have to do with it but I am not so sure it is used on this problem the equation is dsin(-)=wavelength the question is 2.Compare the wavelength or frequency range of the visible light our eyes can see...

I am using the following C library for a variety of solar position calculations: http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/codesandalgorithms/solpos/ In the library, they use the function srss() to compute sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately, it seems that their equation is for the time that the...

[SIZE="2"]Homework Statement A beam of light is emitted 8.0 cm below the surface of an unknown liquid. The light beam is angled in a way that it strikes the surface 7.0 cm from the point directly above the light source. The light beam is totally internally reflected. What is the index of...

Hi I wasn't sure of where to post, since well, I'm an adult, and math/physics weren't a big part of my curriculum, and yet, years later, i thought that continuing to have severe holes in my understanding of math and physics wasn't beneficial, even if i didn't had any direct applications to...

How does the refraction index vary with wavelength? For example, if you take light that initially has just one wavelength and disperse it through a prism and calculate the different indices for each wavelength. I'm guessing they'll be different... Is it linear? exponential? etc.

A few years ago when I was doing my Physics A-Level, me and a few others took part in a competition in which we had to perform a short play that educated a group of non-scientists about a something to do with physics. We chose refraction and showed how a laser bent in a fish tank at different...

Homework Statement A ray of light strikes the midpoint of one face of an equiangular (60◦, 60◦, 60◦) glass prism (n = 1.3) at an angle of incidence of 33◦. a.Trace the path of the light ray through the glass, and find the angle of refraction at the first surface. b.Find the angle of...

Dear readers, In my recent study of dyadic products I found out that physical quantities expressend as 2nd rank tensors can also be expressed as a dyadic product of two vectors. Similarly 2nd rank tensor fields can be expressed as pointwise dyadic products of two vector fields. One such...

Consider a ray of light in air traveling towards a medium 1 and then subsequently to a medium 2 and then back to air again undergoes refraction at every pair of media. Let us say that the initial incident angle between air and medium 1 is 'i'. What law states that the emergent ray at then end...

I was thinking about and I think it might be possible, but before I do anything stupid, anything have an opinion about this?

Hi All, I'm studying for a Ham Radio test and can't for the life of me understand the mechanism behind higher (in this case, Radio) frequencies leading to less refraction in (again in this case, the ionosphere) mediums. I'm sure light waves/dense transparent media has the same explanation...

Homework Statement If the sound wave hits the cold air interface at an angle of 60, what is the angle of refraction? The speed of sound as a function of temperature can be approximated by v = (331 + 0.60T) m/s, where T is in Celcius. Homework Equations The Attempt at a...

Homework Statement A layer of ice having parallel sides floats on water. If light is incident on the upper surface of the ice at an angle of incidence of 15.0°, what is the angle of refraction in the water? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution i know its not so simple that...

Homework Statement A certain kind of glass has an index of refraction of 1.640 for blue light of wavelength 440 nm and an index of 1.605 for red light of wavelength 670 nm. If a beam containing these two colors is incident at an angle of 30.0° on a piece of this glass, what is the angle...

Homework Statement what is the minimum value that the index of refraction can have? Homework Equations n1sin\Thetai = n2sin\Thetar The Attempt at a Solution my choices are: A - between 0 and 1 B - +1 C - -1 D - 0 all listed values in my given chart are...

Finding index of refraction using wavelength and 2 angles?? I'm not sure how to do a problem that involves a light ray striking a block/air interface, how to find the index of refraction of a transparent material when given the wavelength, the angle the light ray makes with respect to the...

Homework Statement http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/371/physicsproblemrh8.jpg Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Basically, I tried to use triangles to find the angles. But I don't know how as it seems I'm only given one side of the triangles.

Homework Statement When an electron beam is incident on a metal surface at an angle tetha 1 to the normal, electron waves are refracted into the metal at an angle tetha 2, following Snell's law. The effect on an electron can be represented approximately by a drop in its potential energy...

Suppose an experimenter firstly is entirely ignorant of general relativity and non-euclidean space. He finds (say) a point-source gravitational field. He fires light beams about and notices the deflection. He concludes that there's a not-equals-one index of refraction n about the source point...

Quick Question about Refraction and Light! Homework Statement http://www.webassign.net/hrw/hrw7_33-55.gif Suppose a prism has apex angle ϕ = 62.0° and index of refraction n = 1.58. What is the smallest angle of incidence θ for which a ray can enter the left face of the prism and exit...

Ok. I don't understand this refraction stuff. The books all show the light bends down when light from the air enters water ah, change in medium. But when I clean our pool the rod appears to bend up. My Dad is a jock and he says to hunt for fish you throw the spear in front of the fish you...

Refraction 2! If you increase the incident angle for the wave coming in, what happens to the angle of refraction? Does it get smaller or larger? (refracting from a slower speed medium to a faster speed medium)

Electrons incident on a crystal suffer refraction due to an attractive potential of 15V. If the angle of incidence is 45 degrees and the electrons have an incident energy of 100eV, what is the angle of refraction? Ok, so i know that i have to use snell's law, but I'm stuck on calculating the...

Homework Statement Parallel light rays enter a transparent sphere along a line passing through the center of the sphere. The rays come to a focus on the far surface of the sphere. What is the sphere's index of refraction? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution so I used...

Homework Statement A goldfish lives in a 50 cm diameter spherical fish bowl. The fish sees a cat watching it. If the cat's face is 20 cm from the edge of the bowl, how far from the edge does the fish seet it as being? (You can ignore the thin glass wall of the bowl). Homework Equations...

1. The Problem A thin beam of white light is directed at an angle α = 36.4° with respect to the horizontal, onto the top of a square block of silicate flint glass near its top corner. The perpendicular length of the block (or height is 1cm). The block’s refractive index n is 1.66 for blue...

1. In an experiment to find the index of refraction, n, of a block of glass, the angle of incidence, θi, and angle of refraction, θr, were measured a number of times as follows: θi: 10° 20° 30° 40° 50° θr: 7.0° 13.5° 20.0° 25.5° 31.0° Given that the relationship between n, θi and θr is...

Could some explain the difference in refraction and reflection in optics and sound waves?

I was wondering if someone can clarify the relationship between index of refraction and frequency. I know that when light is entering into a high index of refraction (say air to glass) that the index is increasing, light bends towards the normal, the speed decreases, and wavelength becomes...

Homework Statement Homework Equations Snell's Law: na*sin(theta of a) = nb*sin(theta of b) wavelength = index of refraction / n n = c / v The Attempt at a Solution The only information given in the problem is the 2 angles of refraction and of course n of air is 1, I do not understand how to...

I have a question! On my desk is a aerosol of compressed air, for blowing dust away and stuff. If you look carefully, the jet stream of air causes a visible refraction against the background. Why is this? I'm assuming it's based on the same way that a heat-haze causes refractions over...

Homework Statement Calculate the angle of refraction for a substance that has a critical angle of 50.5 degrees when that substance is in the air. Homework Equations Apparently the equation I need is: ni *• sine() = nr • sine () My problem is, I have no idea how to use this...

Homework Statement The light incident on a 45 degree prism undergoes total internal relfection at point P. What can you conclude about the index of refraction in the prism? (Determine either a minimum or maximum) This is a right triangle, with the two other angles being 45 degrees and...

When a photon goes say from air to water, it slows down according to; n=c/v where n is refractive index of water c is velocity of light in air v is velocity of light in water It is stated that the frequency of the photon doesn't change when the photon enters the water. Only the...

A very noobish physics question: Has it been experimentally verified, that individual photons get refracted, for example when shot one at a time through a glass, or does the refraction occur only with classical electromagnetic waves?