Index of refraction Definition and 168 Threads

Homework Statement A narrow beam of light passes through a slab obliquely and is then received by an eye. The index of refraction of the material in the slab fluctuates slowly with time. How will it appear to the eye? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Let a point object be kept at...

Homework Statement A beam of parallel light rays from a laser is incident on a solid transparent sphere of index of refraction n1 (see figure). (a) If a point image is produced at the back of the sphere, what is the index of refraction of the sphere? (b)What index of refraction, if any, will...

Homework Statement Consider a special crystal sphere, where light from a distant object is focused by the front surface of the sphere exactly onto the opposite side of the sphere. What is the index of refraction of the sphere? Assume the sphere is in air. Homework Equations (n'/l') -...

Hi, Is it possible that the medium of lesser density has larger index of refraction? If yes, please give me some examples. Thanks in advance.

Are there someones know about gold's index of refraction in micro-onde, for exemple in frequency 10GHz? Or a book in which I may find the value. Thanks a lot.

hello if the fish is swiming below the water, and we need to catch it, we will spear the fish above, below or at the fish? if we will use laser light, thn above, below or at the fish?

and frequency? Could someone point me in a direction where this is explained in depth? I understand polarization and the dielectric constant as I've taken E&M 1

I have just a few more questions regarding index of refractions and reflections... 8. A fly is 10 cm above the surface of a pond. How high above the water does the fly appear to a fish directly below (nair = 1, nwater = 1.333)? (A) 10 cm (B) 7.5 cm (C) 13.3 cm (D) 12.5 cm (E) fish cannot see...

Homework Statement The radius of curvature of both sides of a converging lens is 18 cm. One side of the lens is coated with silver so that the inner surface is reflective. When light is incident on the uncoated side it passes through the lens, reflects off the silver coating, and passes back...

Homework Statement See image Homework Equations n1sin(theta1) = n2sin(theta2) 1/s + 1/s' = 1/f The Attempt at a Solution My question is for the second part. I think I've figured out why I got it wrong, but I'm not sure. So since the object distance (s) should be approximately 21 cm, then...

Hello! I have a question concerning the relation of the index of refraction of a material with E/M wave frequency. If we take the classical Feynman approach, we can envision the material as a series of atoms, with electrons bound with springs to the nuclei. Let the natural frequencies of...

Homework Statement A beam of light travels through air (n= 1.0003) and strikes an unknown material at an angle of 50.0 degrees. The new angle of refraction is 25.0 degrees. What is the index of refraction of this material? Homework Equations sin\theta2 / sin\theta1 = n1/n2 The...

Homework Statement A non-expanding/non-contracting laser beam having a diameter 0.132 m in air strikes a piece of glass (ng = 1.62) at an angle of 52°. What is the diameter of the beam, in m, in the glass? Homework Equations snell's law, n1sin(θ1)=n2sin(θ2) The Attempt at a...

Most textbooks list the real part of the index of refraction. How would I go about calculating the imaginary part of the index of refraction of air?

Homework Statement We know, for constant n, \frac{\partial L}{\partial y} = \frac{d}{dx} (\frac{\partial L}{\partial y'}), where we define L as being the optical light path length, and y' is the derivative of y with respect to x, and L = L(y, y') = n \sqrt{1 + y' ^{2}}. However...

Homework Statement There is a diagram in the problem statement so here is a link to the image of the problem: http://imgur.com/KDrRsyO Homework Equations Snell's Law: n_{1} * sin(\theta_{1}) = n_{2} * sin(\theta_{2}) The Attempt at a Solution My attempt using Snell's law...

ElectroMagnetic Wave In Liquid.. Help with Index of Refraction?? Homework Statement Consider the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in some liquid. The y-component of its electric field is given by Ey(x,t)=4.3 x104 V/m sin(5.40E-2m-1x + 6.00E+0 x106 s-1 t). How large is the index of...

Homework Statement For my lab I beamed a laser through an equilateral triangular prism. The angle of incidence was 13 degrees. The light left the prism at an angle 15 degrees to the normal. How would I calculate the index of refraction of the prism? (air = 1) Homework Equations The...

Homework Statement I made a graph in Excel which graphs (1/x^2) vs (1/cos^2 (angle of incidence)). From the graph I am supposed to analyze the slope and intercept of the straight line. I made a trendline which came out to be y=mx + b = (-0.0084)x + 5.54. From this equation I'm supposed to...

1. A particular fish tank filled with fresh water (n = 1.33) has a coral reef sticker stuck to the exterior wall outside the fish tank. The tank's walls are 2 cm thick, but a goldfish inside the tank sees the sticker 0.6 cm away from the water-wall interface. What is the index of refraction of...

When one calculate the real part of the index of refraction for a specific multilevel atom one would use the following formula: Re(n(\Delta))=1+\frac{N e^2}{8\pi \epsilon_0 m\omega} \sum_i \frac{\Delta_i}{\Delta_i^2+(\gamma/2)^2}K_i Where K_i is the C-G coefficient. My question is as...

I have my introductory physics students determine the index of refraction of various solids using fairly conventional methods (lining up pins or determining critical angle). I think this experiment would be more interesting if I could vary it more. I would like to find a substance with the...

Hi, my current research is to determine the thickness and the index of refraction of semiconductor materials.. using reflectivity.. my adviser gave me the results of the sample by GRAPHS the reflectance percentage vs. the wavelength.. i know that i can measure the index of refraction.. if i...

Hey all, I'm trying to solve a problem in which I have a uniaxial (uniform in two directions, different in the other) crystal with the optical axis normal to the plane of reflection. I call the permittivity parallel to the optical axis ε_par and the permittivity in the other two directions...

In electricity and magnetism, we typically assume that the relative permittivity (or dielectric constant) ε of air is equal to the "permittivity of free space" ε0, and likewise we assume that air has a relative permeability μ equal to the "permeability of free space" μ0. This is equivalent to...

I'm going through the Light & Optics chapter of Kaplan MCAT prep material & am having a hard time conceptually understanding the relationship between index of refraction & wavelength or with frequency. It says in the book that n = c/v, & "when the speed of the light wave varies with...

Had this question in a test today, :). Homework Statement Carbon tetrachloride (n = 1.46) is poured into a container made of crown glass (n = 1.52). What's the speed of light in the liquad? Homework Equations v=c/n The Attempt at a Solution I just multiplied 1.46 by the...

Homework Statement Monochromatic light of variable wavelength is incident normally on a thin sheet of plastic film in air. The reflected light is a maximum only for 482.9 and 676.0 in the visible spectrum. What is the minimum thickness of the film ? Homework Equations 2nt=m*lambda...

Homework Statement What is the thinnest soap film (excluding the case of zero thickness) that appears black when illuminated with light with a wavelength of 520 ? The index of refraction of the film is 1.34, and there is air on both sides of the film. Homework Equations Im wondering do I...

Is the index of refraction for LCP/RCP light any different from that for linearly polarized light?

I'm not understanding how to setup/pictorialize this problem. I've done several very simple problems determining the index of refraction, but I'm confused on this one for some reason. http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n149/camarolt4z28/Untitled.png

If a light travels from A to B and there's a plane of glass in between the two points, will the total time it takes to make the journey be different than if there was no glass? If light slows down in glass, then I guess the answer would be yes, but I've read that the index of refraction is more...

I'm stuck on a homework problem. It states the wavelength is 600 nm and the glass lens has an index of refraction of 1.40. Find the index of refraction for the coating and the required thickness. I've googled around, but I'm not sure what equations I should be using. I got 1.183 for the...

Homework Statement This was for a lab experiment, and I'm still not sure how this all fits together. We were supposed to use snell's law to find the index of refraction for the lab bench. We measured from the top of the bench to our eye level, and to the center of the bright spot seen...

Homework Statement In a lab we did, we verified Snell's Law of Refraction by measuring the index of refraction for water. We filled a plastic half-circle with water and drew a line normal to the flat side. We measured an angle 30 degrees from the normal line (called the incident ray). We...

Homework Statement I'm not sure if this can be answered without the picture but I can't get it posted. The problem gives theta(incident) and theta(r). It's a basic refraction through a transparent plastic piece. It askes for the index of regraction of this material. Homework Equations...

Homework Statement At what distance below the surface of a lake will a fish have a 180 degree field view above the water surface (if the fish is looking up toward the surface of the lake) ? -Assume the index of refraction for water to be 1.33 and that of air to be 1.00 Homework...

Homework Statement Index of refraction of air is being treated as 1, index of refraction for water is 1.33. W is given as 6.1 cm, the problem is to find H. Homework Equations By Snell's Law, n1sin\Theta1=n2sin\Theta2. We can also use at least one of the trigonometric equations...

Homework Statement Find the index of refraction n of the rectangle using x, d, and θ. http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6079/snellslaw.jpg Homework Equations n1*sin(θ1)=n2*sin(θ2) The Attempt at a Solution Is it possible to solve this problem given the relevant data? What I...

Homework Statement A light beam of wavelenght 500nm travels from A to B in vacuum. (AB = 10mm) If we put a glass sheet with n=1.5 and 1mm thick, calculate how change the number of periods. Calculate the phase lag too. Homework Equations k0 = 2Pi/λ (vacuum) k= k0·n The Attempt...

Hi When we have a complex index of refraction, the real part determines the phase-change of the incoming wave and the complex part attenuates the wave. When we e.g. want to find the phase velocity using v = c/n, when should we use the real part of n or the modulus of n? Niles.

Homework Statement In order to determine the refractive index of a transparent plate of glass, a microscope is first focussed on a tiny scratch on the upper surface and the barrel position is recorded. Upon further lowering the microscope barrel by 1.87mm , a focussed image of the...

Varying index of refraction Experiment (URGENT) I have a experiment that measures the index of refraction. (see references for a better explanation) Basically is like this: You have a cell made of glass with water. You put unmixed sugar (or other thing) on it, creating a gradient of index of...

A ray of light travels through a medium with an index of refraction n_{1} and strikes an layered medium such that the index of refraction is n_{2}=ky+1 where y is the depth of the medium and k is a constant. If it hits at an angle of \theta_{1} with respect to the normal, find the angle...

http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/nanostructured-metamaterial-enables-invisibility-cloak?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IeeeSpectrum+%28IEEE+Spectrum%29 "We can even have amplification of light instead of its absorption. Here, for the...

Homework Statement Consider a cylindrical piece of material of a constant thickness d and radius r = a, but made out of a material with position-dependent index of refraction. How must the index of refraction vary with radial distance r such that the cylindrical piece act as a lens with a focal...

Homework Statement A Lens maker desires to make a lens of focal length 30 cm. in air. The equipment in the shop is set to make lens faces of 20 cm. a. What index of refraction should the lens material have to produce this focal length? b. What would the focal length of this lens be...

Does a magnetic field refract when it enters into a different medium?

Assume we have a plane of oscillating charges described by x=xoei(omega)t. The total field is given by E=- \frac{\etaq}{2\epsilonc}i\omegaxoei\omega(t-z/c) . (Can someone point me to a website where I can learn to type in these formulas and not not have them suck?) Ignore that weird looking x^o...

The speed of light in a certain substance is 79.0% of its value in water. What is the index of refraction of this substance? Here's what I've done so far: (3.0*10^8 m/s)(0.79) because its 79%. In water, the n=1.003. I'm not sure where to go from there. Any help would be greatly...