What Angle Does Light Refract in Ice?

[tymartin]

Homework Statement

A beam of sunlight with a wavelength of 500 nm strikes an ice floe at an angle of 66.5 If ice has an index of refraction n=1.31, at what angle is the beam refracted?

Homework Equations

Law of Refraction- n(i) sin 0(i)=n (r) 0 (r')

The Attempt at a Solution

I'm completely lost. I am not familiar with the sin key.

 

[tiny-tim]

Welcome to PF!

A beam of sunlight with a wavelength of 500 nm strikes an ice floe at an angle of 66.5 If ice has an index of refraction n=1.31, at what angle is the beam refracted?
…
I'm completely lost. I am not familiar with the sin key.

Hi tymartin! Welcome to PF!

(have a theta: θ and a degrees: ° )

This is Snell's law …

key in 66.5, make sure your calculator is using degrees ("deg") not radians ("rad"), and press "sin" …

that gives you sin65.5º …

now find the sin of the angle of refraction, key it in, and find the thing on your calculator that converts the "sin" key to inverse sin (sin^-1), and press the "sin" key again