Snell's Law, also known as the law of refraction, describes the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction when a light ray passes through a boundary between two different media.
Snell's Law is used to calculate the angle of refraction when a light ray passes through a boundary between two different media. This can be applied to various problems involving light, such as the bending of a pencil in a glass of water or the formation of rainbows.
The key variables in Snell's Law are the angles of incidence and refraction, as well as the refractive indices of the two media. The angle of incidence is the angle between the incident light ray and the normal to the boundary, while the angle of refraction is the angle between the refracted light ray and the normal.
Snell's Law is derived from the principle of least time, which states that light will travel through a medium in the shortest amount of time possible. By considering the different paths that a light ray can take when passing through a boundary, the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction can be determined.
Snell's Law has many practical applications, such as in the design of lenses for cameras and eyeglasses. It is also used in the development of optical fibers for telecommunication and in the study of oceanography to understand the bending of light as it passes through water. Additionally, Snell's Law is important in the field of medicine for vision correction surgeries like LASIK.