Physics Forums
As a physics student, I was taught that refraction happens because when light approaches a material with a refraction index that is different than the index of the medium it is traveling through at that moment, the light that hits it first, as shown here:
This raises to me two questions:
1) From this explanation it follows that waves that come perpendicular to the surface should not 'bend'. That is however not what I have seen personally. How can that be explained?
(I gather from that that such drawings are merely analogies and should not be taken literally, but that doesn't give me a full explanation)
2) What happens when single photons hit the material? Will they 'bend' as well?
This raises to me two questions:
1) From this explanation it follows that waves that come perpendicular to the surface should not 'bend'. That is however not what I have seen personally. How can that be explained?
(I gather from that that such drawings are merely analogies and should not be taken literally, but that doesn't give me a full explanation)
2) What happens when single photons hit the material? Will they 'bend' as well?