Snell's Law x2: Double-checking trig?

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Homework Help Overview

The problem involves applying Snell's Law to determine the angles of refraction as light travels between two media: glass and carbon disulfide. The indices of refraction for both materials and the incident angle are provided.

Discussion Character

  • Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to verify their understanding of Snell's Law by calculating the angles of refraction at two interfaces. They present their calculations and seek confirmation of their approach.

Discussion Status

Several participants express agreement with the original poster's calculations, indicating that the approach appears correct. However, there is no explicit consensus on the interpretation of the results or any further exploration of the underlying concepts.

Contextual Notes

No additional constraints or missing information are noted in the discussion.

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Homework Statement



In this drawing:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/6559/physgv8.png

Index of refraction for glass: 1.52
Index of refraction for surrounding carbon disulfide: 1.63
Incident angle at point A: 43.0°
At what angle does the ray leave the glass at point B?

Homework Equations



[tex]n_{1}sin\theta_{1} = n_{2}sin\theta_{2}[/tex] (twice)

The Attempt at a Solution



Please double-check my conceptual understanding of this.

Part 1, as light travels through the carbon disulfide into the glass:

[tex]1.63sin43 = 1.52sin\theta_{2}[/tex]

[tex]\theta_{2} = sin^{-1}\frac{1.63sin43}{1.52}[/tex]

So Θ within the glass is 47°.

Drawn out and making a triangle with the upper left hand corner of the glass, a triangle forms with point B as one of its own points, meaning that the angle with a normal line at that point would be 180 - (90 + 47) = 43°.

Part 2, as light travels through the glass back into the carbon disulfide:

[tex]1.52sin43 = 1.63sin\theta_{2}[/tex]

[tex]\theta_{2} = sin^{-1}\frac{1.52sin43}{1.63}[/tex]

Which yields 39.4923°.

Am I going about this correctly?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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Looks OK to me.
 
hage567 said:
Looks OK to me.

Thanks for taking a peek - turned out to be correct.
 
Looks correct to me too.
 

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