Refraction Definition and 726 Threads

Homework Statement Snells Law of refraction Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution n1sinx=n2sinx is an extremely easy equation but i get confused as to which sinx to put my n's to and viseversa. can someone explain to me please?!

Homework Statement I have tried to solve the displacement sideways of an lightray through a medium with snells law. The question is how much does the ray travel in x-direction in the new medium with width D. It says in the text that one should use pytagoras but I can't seem to understand...

Homework Statement 1.a) Design an astronomical telescope with an angular magnification of +5 (pay attention to + sign !) and length of 16 cm, i.e. compute fobjective and focular). Homework Equations M=-(f_objective/f_ocular) L=f_ocular+f_objective The Attempt at a Solution...

Homework Statement A ray of light is passed through a prism and the critical angle is measured a) If the critical angle for the glass-air boundary is 41 degrees, calculate glasses refractive index b) the same system as before is used, but this time we measure the refractive index of juice...

Hello; For my physics investigation I'm investigating a relationship between wavelength and index of refraction for a medium exhibiting normal dispersion. The medium is borosilicate glass (BK7). However, I'm encountering some problems that I didn't expect. For example, directing a red ray of...

Why does sun appear elliptical during sunset and sunrise? I have read that when the Sun (or Moon) is near the horizon, the rays from the lower edge are bent more than the rays from the upper edge. This produces a shortening of the vertical diameter, causing the Sun to...

Why does refraction occur? I know that it's because light travels at different speeds in different mediums, but I don't see how that would cause a light wave to bend. I found "the wave must continuous across a boundary, which requires that the phase of the wave be constant on any given plane" at...

Pretty straightforward question I hope. When the ray crosses into the material it will be refracted (ie. it's path changes direction). What is the explanation of this? All I have really been taught so far is that it does. I gather that it depends on the dielectric constant of a material but I...

why does the direction of light change during refraction if the speed changes?how are speed and direction related?

Hi everyone I'm having a bit of trouble solving this question. If anyone can help that would be awesome Homework Statement Rank the materials in the diagram according to their refractive indices from greatest to smallest (see attachment) The attempt at a solution The greater the...

Homework Statement In order to determine the refractive index of a transparent plate of glass, a microscope is first focussed on a tiny scratch on the upper surface and the barrel position is recorded. Upon further lowering the microscope barrel by 1.87mm , a focussed image of the...

Hello; I have learned that the law of refraction is n = sinI/sinR, where n is the refractive index, I is the angle of incidence, and R is the angle of refraction. But why is it sinI/sinR, and not simply angle I/angle R if it is identifying the ratio between the two angles? I have heard...

Hello, while making my tea and watching the spoon inside the glass (with water), I start questioning myself what really is refraction. On class they just told me refraction is because light goes slower in a medium, so it bends according to Snell's Law. What is Snell's Law? Light bends to a...

how does refraction of light take place?And why does it always shift towards the normal while traveling from rarer to denser medium,why not away from normal?

A ray of light travels through a medium with an index of refraction n_{1} and strikes an layered medium such that the index of refraction is n_{2}=ky+1 where y is the depth of the medium and k is a constant. If it hits at an angle of \theta_{1} with respect to the normal, find the angle...

Hey guys, I need some notes on refraction please I don't know anything on it. Also I need to how to get ( draw ) the image of an object behind a mirror step by step please. That would really help me guys.

Hi, I know I've seen this question on this site before, but it didn't explain how to do it. I don't even know where to begin... Q: Consider the optical interface between crown glass and ethanol. b) White light travels from crown glass into ethanol. If the angle of incidence in crown glass...

A mixture of red and violet light is incident on a glass-air interface. The indices of refraction for red and violet light in glass are n(red)=1.52 and n(violet)=1.538. What color of light enters the air? http://www.webassign.net/cj8/q_10.gif attempt to solve: I found that the critical angle...

http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/nanostructured-metamaterial-enables-invisibility-cloak?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+%28IEEE+Spectrum%29 "We can even have amplification of light instead of its absorption. Here, for the...

Template? mmk... 1. Problem... (with intro) Let's start with a camera. We know that a camera uses a lens to refract incoming light into parallel rays that travel to the sensor (or film). Like so: http://a.imageshack.us/img508/2370/camerau.png The problem I'm going to ask about revolves around...

Why do waves spread out after emerging from a narrow (\leq\lambda) opening? Also, why do waves change direction at boundaries between regions where the wave speed differs? I have tried to find answers to these questions by searching on the Net, but with no luck.:-(

Homework Statement If you dive without goggles, you can't see very clearly. Why? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution I guess the reason is water around the eyes refracts the ray so that the image produced in the eye is blur. Right? But why when using goggle we can see...

First, I want to say sorry for my english, cause I do not live in an english-speaking country.:rolleyes: 1. Homework Statement Here the problem definition: There is a person which has a body height of 1.7m and is standing in front of a cylindrical aquarium, which is 4 meters high. It is...

Is there a way to visually determine whether refraction or interference is the cause of the iridescent effect observed in rainbows, oil films/bubbles, insect shells/wings, cds/dvds, etc.? This question arose from when I was looking at thin films of minerals through a microscope. The slide was...

Homework Statement Consider a cylindrical piece of material of a constant thickness d and radius r = a, but made out of a material with position-dependent index of refraction. How must the index of refraction vary with radial distance r such that the cylindrical piece act as a lens with a focal...

Homework Statement [PLAIN]http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3072/refractiong.jpg The apparent angle from the water is 53 degrees, but what is the actual angle from the water? Homework Equations n1 * sin i = n2 * sin r The Attempt at a Solution I think the real problem here...

Homework Statement A ray of pure yellow light reaches the surface of a pond at an angle of incidence of 60°. What angle does it make with the normal inside the water? Speed of light in air = 300,000,000 m/s Speed of light in water = 225,000,000 m/s So the Refractive index μ = 1.33...

Homework Statement A Lens maker desires to make a lens of focal length 30 cm. in air. The equipment in the shop is set to make lens faces of 20 cm. a. What index of refraction should the lens material have to produce this focal length? b. What would the focal length of this lens be...

Ok i get that hotter air is less dense , but when light goes from hot air to colder air we are dealing with the same atoms it is just that the photon will have less collisions , why would the angle of re-emission change for the photon just because it is having less or more collisions in the...

Does a magnetic field refract when it enters into a different medium?

Homework Statement A plane electromagnetic wave refracts in a nonuniform medium. The ray trajectory is known, y = a \left[ 1 - \left( \frac{x}{2a} \right)^2 \right] where a=const. a) Plot y(x) b) From the slope of the curve find the angle \theta \left( y \right) which the...

Homework Statement Given a three layer model ------------------------------------------------- v_1=1.5km/s ------------------------------------------------- v_2=1.3km/s ------------------------------------------------- v_3=2.0km/s Assume a ray goes through layer 1 and hits the interface...

Assume we have a plane of oscillating charges described by x=xoei(omega)t. The total field is given by E=- \frac{\etaq}{2\epsilonc}i\omegaxoei\omega(t-z/c) . (Can someone point me to a website where I can learn to type in these formulas and not not have them suck?) Ignore that weird looking x^o...

Homework Statement The diagram shows a curved convex surface with radius of curvature R separating two media with differing refractive indices of n_{1} and n_{2} Show that the matrix representing refraction at this surface is...

Homework Statement A fisherman in a stream 20 cm deep looks downward into the water of stream and sees a rock on the stream bed. How deep does the stream appear to the fisherman? Homework Equations We Assume that the index of refraction of the water is 1.33. The Attempt at a...

A laser beam traveling in air strikes the mid- point of one end of a slab of material with index of refraction 1.45 as shown in the figure below. Dimensions of Block 46mm (L) and 3.4mm (W) Initial ray of light enters the slab from the left side at an angle of incidence of 39 degrees...

The speed of light in a certain substance is 79.0% of its value in water. What is the index of refraction of this substance? Here's what I've done so far: (3.0*10^8 m/s)(0.79) because its 79%. In water, the n=1.003. I'm not sure where to go from there. Any help would be greatly...

Homework Statement A light ray strikes the surface between two transparent materials as shown. Each angle is labeled with a letter. Give the letters for the angle of incidence, angle of refraction and angle of reflection, in that order Homework Equations...

Homework Statement A ray of light is incident in water on a plane water-glass boundary. The angle of incidence is 30 degrees. Calculate the angle of refraction. (Refractive index of glass with respect to air =3/2, refractive index of water with respect to air = 4/3). Homework Equations...

Homework Statement A beam of light in air strikes a piece of glass (n=1.51) and is partially reflected and partially refracted. Find the angle of incidence if the angle of reflection is twice the angle of refraction. Homework Equations n1sintheta1 = n2sintheta2 The Attempt at a...

Homework Statement A low power laser is incident at the interface between crown glass (n=1.52), and air at an angle of 45 degrees. The refracted ray into air makes an angle with respect to the normal of the surface that is closest to ... Question 2 answers 27.7 degrees 41.1 degrees...

[SIZE="3"]Take Electromagntic wave for example , when light pass from vacuum to one medium , how does the atoms of the medium bend the light towards a certain direction at the microscopic level ?

Homework Statement While studying physics at the library late one night, you notice the image of the desk lamp reflected from the varnished tabletop. When you turn your Polaroid sunglasses sideways, the reflected image disappears. If this occurs when the angle between the incident and...

Homework Statement A kitchen has twin side-by-side sinks. One sink is filled with water, the other is empty. 1) Does the sink with water appear to be deeper, shallower, or the same depth as the empty sink? 2) Choose the best explanation from among the following: a) The sink with...

Homework Statement After finishing your physics classes with the firm conviction that the questions were strange and out of touch with reality, you decide to take up spear fishing. While wading through water (of index of refraction=n and depth h) you spot a fish that appears to be a...

Homework Statement A laser beam enters a 10.0cm thick glass window at an angle of 30 degrees from the normal. The index of refraction of the glass is 1.46. At what angle from the normal does the beam travel through the glass? Homework Equations sin theta 1 / sin theta 2 = n1 / n2 = v1 /...

I am not a physicist but I do have a non-mathematical science background and I am a serious physics appreciator. I am new to this site and have a pressing question I would like to ask a physicist. High school and even college level physics texts desribe the reflection and refraction of light...

Homework Statement This question is question 5 from chapter 4 of Hecht's Optics, 4th edition. I found a pdf of the homework set, and the question is labeled as 4.5. http://www.physics.byu.edu/faculty/hess/471W09/Homework/Ch4.pdf" Homework Equations Not completely sure The...

THe wavelength of a red helium-neon laser light in air is 632.8 nm. A) what is the frequency? ( i already figured this out to be 4.7 x 10^16) B) what is its wavelenght in glass that has an index of refraction of 1.50?( i do not know where to or if i have to plug in the refraction into an...

Hello, Ok, I have been looking for a chart anywhere on the internet concerning the density of materials and the index of refraction. Wikipedia has one but it is just the different density of one type of glass vs index of refraction. I am looking for a chart with many materials and all their...