-
Home
- College physics for ap® courses
- Geometric optics
- The law of refraction
Students in a lab group are given a plastic cube with a hollow cube-shaped space in the middle that fills about half the volume of the cube. The index of refraction of the plastic is known. The hollow space is filled with a gas, and the students are asked to collect the data needed to find the index of refraction of the gas. What information would you need to collect, and how would you use this information in order to deduce the index of refraction of the gas in the cube?
First, measure the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction for light entering the plastic from air. Since the two angles can be measured and the index of refraction of air is known, the student can solve for the index of refraction of the plastic.
Next, measure the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction for light entering the gas from the plastic. Since the two angles can be measured and the index of refraction of the plastic is known, the student can solve for the index of refraction of the gas.
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
Light travels through water and crosses a boundary at a non-normal angle into a different fluid with an unknown index of refraction. Which of the following is true about the path of the light after crossing the boundary?
- If the index of refraction of the fluid is higher than that of water, the light will speed up and turn toward the normal.
- If the index of refraction of the fluid is higher than that of water, the light will slow down and turn away from the normal.
- If the index of refraction of the fluid is lower than that of water, the light will speed up and turn away from the normal.
- If the index of refraction of the fluid is lower than that of water, the light will slow down and turn toward the normal.
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
A laser is fired from a submarine beneath the surface of a lake (
n = 1.33). The laser emerges from the lake into air with an angle of refraction of 67°. How fast is the light moving through the water? What is the angle of incidence of the laser light when it crosses the boundary between the lake and the air?
The speed of light in a medium is simply
c /
n , so the speed of light in water is 2.25 × 10
8 m/s. From Snell’s law, the angle of incidence is 44°.
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
Section summary
- The changing of a light ray’s direction when it passes through variations in matter is called refraction.
- The speed of light in vacuum
- Index of refraction
, where
is the speed of light in the material,
is the speed of light in vacuum, and
is the index of refraction.
- Snell’s law, the law of refraction, is stated in equation form as
.
Conceptual questions
Diffusion by reflection from a rough surface is described in this chapter. Light can also be diffused by refraction. Describe how this occurs in a specific situation, such as light interacting with crushed ice.
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
Does the fact that the light flash from lightning reaches you before its sound prove that the speed of light is extremely large or simply that it is greater than the speed of sound? Discuss how you could use this effect to get an estimate of the speed of light.
Got questions? Get instant answers now!
Questions & Answers
how to study physic and understand
what is conservative force with examples
Moses
the transfer of energy by a force that causes an object to be displaced; the product of the component of the force in the direction of the displacement and the magnitude of the displacement
AI-Robot
why is it from light to gravity
difference between model and theory
Esther
Is the ship moving at a constant velocity?
The full note of modern physics
introduction to applications of nuclear physics
the explanation is not in full details
I need more explanation or all about kinematics
Moses
I need more explanation or all about nuclear physics
aluet
Show that the equal masses particles emarge from collision at right angle by making explicit used of fact that momentum is a vector quantity
A wave is described by the function D(x,t)=(1.6cm) sin[(1.2cm^-1(x+6.8cm/st] what are:a.Amplitude b. wavelength c. wave number d. frequency e. period f. velocity of speed.
what is frontier of physics
A body is projected upward at an angle 45° 18minutes with the horizontal with an initial speed of 40km per second. In hoe many seconds will the body reach the ground then how far from the point of projection will it strike. At what angle will the horizontal will strike
Suppose hydrogen and oxygen are diffusing through air. A small amount of each is released simultaneously. How much time passes before the hydrogen is 1.00 s ahead of the oxygen? Such differences in arrival times are used as an analytical tool in gas chromatography.
what's the definition of physics
the science concerned with describing the interactions of energy, matter, space, and time; it is especially interested in what fundamental mechanisms underlie every phenomenon
AI-Robot
nuclei having the same Z and different N s
AI-Robot
Got questions? Join the online conversation and get instant answers!
Source:
OpenStax, College physics for ap® courses. OpenStax CNX. Nov 04, 2016 Download for free at https://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11844/1.14
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.