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We know that the wavelength of visible light changes when it travels between two media with different refractive indices. Here's my question: does light change colour when it moves from air into glass?
I had quite an interesting but inconclusive discussion about this with my Physics teacher today, with the main point of difficulty being the fact that colour is simply what humans perceive it to be. When you observe light being refracted, you see it after it's left the glass and so there's no way you can directly observe its colour when it's in the glass. You'd have the same problem with any measuring instrument.
I don't even know whether I'm asking the right question. Perhaps a better question would be: what is colour? I'd be grateful if somebody could help me obtain a clearer picture of refracted light, because I'm a little bit confused about this particular aspect of colour.
Thanks
I had quite an interesting but inconclusive discussion about this with my Physics teacher today, with the main point of difficulty being the fact that colour is simply what humans perceive it to be. When you observe light being refracted, you see it after it's left the glass and so there's no way you can directly observe its colour when it's in the glass. You'd have the same problem with any measuring instrument.
I don't even know whether I'm asking the right question. Perhaps a better question would be: what is colour? I'd be grateful if somebody could help me obtain a clearer picture of refracted light, because I'm a little bit confused about this particular aspect of colour.
Thanks