brian.green
- 26
- 2
What cause the refraction of light? I read somewhere the change of speed but the angle is also important. But why the light refract to the thicker part of an optical lens?
Why does light refract toward the thicker part of a lens?
- Level: High School
- Thread starter brian.green
- Start date
-
- Tags
- Light Refraction
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
4 replies · 2K views
Discussion
- 24,488
- 15,063
Before you treat this question quantum-theoretically, which involves the propagation of photons in matter, i.e., you have to calculate the photon-polarization tensor in finite-temperature quantum field theory, you should look at the classical theory, how the dielectric function (more generally tensor) is evaluated within simple classical models of matter. The final outcome is amazingly close to the quantum treatment.
DrStupid
- 2,167
- 502
brian.green said:
With the Huygens–Fresnel principle refraction can be explained with the change of the speed of light only.
Science Advisor
Homework Helper
- 16,222
- 4,937
My guess is you don't really want a quantum field theory answer ?
More an optics of hyperphysics kind of answer ?
More an optics of hyperphysics kind of answer ?
brian.green
- 26
- 2
BvU said:
1. No, of course not. QFT is a big monster!
2. Thanks, I like hyperphysics! I used to read this site frequently a couple of years ago.
I already found the answer by Google on this site with useful links in someone's answer:
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/94124/what-causes-refraction-of-visible-light
Last edited by a moderator: