How does refraction of light take place?

[Parbat]

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?

 

[JDługosz]

Did you check Wikipedia?

 

[Andy Resnick]

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?

Conservation of momentum.

 

[Parbat]

Conservation of momentum.

If it is conservation of momentum,then why doesn't the light bend away from the normal
with the same angle it bends towards normal?there would also be conservation of momentum,is'nt it?

 

[Parbat]

Do you think diffraction is the cause of refraction?

 

[Bob S]

Look at Table 8.1 on page 182 in

http://books.google.com/books?id=WN...-75 refractive index density cerenkov&f=false

The density of the inert transparent fluorocarbon FC-75 is 1.76 (MORE than water), and the index of refraction is 1.276 (LESS than water). Denser liquids do not always have a higher index of refraction.

Bob S

 

[Andy Resnick]

If it is conservation of momentum,then why doesn't the light bend away from the normal
with the same angle it bends towards normal?there would also be conservation of momentum,is'nt it?

I don't understand what you mean. When light enters a more optically dense medium, it refracts towards the normal. When it exits back to the less dense medium, it refracts away from the normal.

 

[Redbelly98]

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?

Here is as good an explanation that I know of. Read the paragraph titled "Refraction" at this link:

http://esfscience.wordpress.com/category/a2-physics/page/2/​

(You are looking for this figure:
[PLAIN]http://esfscience.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/soldiers.gif?w=300&h=260)

The density of the inert transparent fluorocarbon FC-75 is 1.76 (MORE than water), and the index of refraction is 1.276 (LESS than water). Denser liquids do not always have a higher index of refraction.

I am sure the OP meant denser in the sense of having a higher refractive index, not in the mass-per-unit-volume sense of the word.