The discussion revolves around the behavior of light as it passes through a prism, specifically focusing on the angles of incidence and refraction. The problem involves applying Snell's Law to determine the angle at which light emerges from an equilateral triangular prism with a given index of refraction.
Participants are actively engaging with the problem, questioning the assumptions made about the angles and the relationships between the light ray and the prism's faces. Some guidance has been provided regarding the importance of visualizing the scenario, and there is an acknowledgment of a potential misunderstanding regarding the reference angles.
The original poster's calculations yield an unexpected result, prompting questions about the setup and the angles involved. There is an emphasis on ensuring clarity in the relationship between the light ray and the prism's geometry, particularly regarding the normals at the points of refraction.
Let'sthink said:Draw a rough sketch and see whether the refracted ray is meeting the opposite face of the prism or which face of the prism! Check the angle of 49.47 you have got is between refracted ray and which face of prism. Just do not play with numbers visualize what is happening.
That would be with respect to the local normal to the prism. What's the normal's angle with respect to the horizontal? (You were asked for the ray's angle with respect to the horizontal).OhBoy said:Snells law tells me that the refracted ray on the right side should be arcsin(1.5*sin(40.53)), which is about 77 degrees. This answer is off by 30 degrees for some reason. The answer is 47 degrees but I get 77 degrees.
gneill said:That would be with respect to the local normal to the prism. What's the normal's angle with respect to the horizontal? (You were asked for the ray's angle with respect to the horizontal).