Refraction Definition and 751 Threads

When a pulse of light enters a denser medium(slow medium) then is there phase shift or rather it passes unshifted?

This may be silly...but why does light bend on moving from one medium to another medium. i can understand that, the density of particles, make it difficult for light to travel, hence it slows down. But why should it bend?

Shouldn't the index of refraction change due to the random Brownian motion. I watched a video recently that explained why light slowed down in different mediums and said that it was due to the fact that the light ray has to bounce off several particles before it leaves the medium its in.(Note...

Homework Statement A rectangular slab of length l=20cm and thickness d=4cm is placed in left of a converging lens of focal length f=20cm. A screen is placed in the focal plane plane of lens (right side of lens).Refractive index of the material of slab increases linearly from u0 at the bottom by...

I was thinking about the situation given my text about a plano convex lens which was produced with a manufacturing defect. It's plane surface is tilted outwards by a small angle 'z'. In the text its written that when a parallel light beam enters the lens parallel to x-axis , it will still be...

Homework Statement A goldfish in a spherical fish bowl of radius R is at the level of the center of the bowl and at distance R/2 from the glass. What magnification of the fish is produced by the water of the bowl for a viewer looking along a line that includes the fish and the center, from the...

Homework Statement A coating of n1 = 1.33 material is to be added to n2 = 1.50 glass, in order to make it "irridescent." a) What is the thinnest layer of material which will have a reflection maximum for normal-incidence light at BOTH 400 and 600 nm (vacuum) wavelength? b) This thickness will...

Is there such a thing as a classical theory for the index of refraction? I.e. are there expressions for the index of refraction ##n## in terms of other parameters like charge density? If so, a reference would be much appreciated.

Homework Statement A solid glass cube with edge length of 10.0 mm and index of refraction n=1.75 has a small, dark spot dead center of the cube. Find the minimum radius of black paper circles that could be pasted at the center of each cube face to prevent the center spot from being seen, no...

Hi, I'm new to the forum as I'm struggling to find answers with an internet search. I've seen Snell's Law stated as n sin theta = constant. How does this arise from its more familiar form of n1sintheta1 = n2sintheta2? I can't work it out. Thanks for reading!

The Fresnel equations indicate that radiation will be 100% transmitted if two mediums have the same refractive indices. If that is true, then whey is there so much reflection off of, for instance, cracks in glass? Is this because there is a microscopic vacancy where the index of refraction...

Homework Statement Young's double slit experiment 'd' - Separation between the two slits 'D' - Separation between the double slit and the screen 'S' - Source (Primary) (It is coherent) S1, S2 - Secondary sources Δx - Path difference between the two rays coming out from S1 and S2 Δx° - Path...

Homework Statement In a physics lab, light with a wavelength of 570nmtravels in air from a laser to a photocell in a time of 17.5ns . When a slab of glass with a thickness of 0.890m is placed in the light beam, with the beam incident along the normal to the parallel faces of the slab, it takes...

Hi all, I've read that when light undergoes refraction into a medium with higher refractive index it changes speed and this is explained by the electrons of the medium absorbing the photon energy, they hold onto it then eventually re-emit the light if the frequency of light doesn't match the...

Homework Statement Light traveling thorugh air is at incident at point x on the block of ice. If the refractive index is 1.3, calculate a) the critical angle at the ice-air interface (3 marks) b) the minimum angle of incidence, for the light to Y refracted out of the block at any point along...

Homework Statement The index of refraction is given by n^2 = (N q / ε m) (1 / (ω0^2 - ω^2 + iγω)) Where N is the electron density, q is the charge of an electron, ε is the permittivity of free space, m is the mass of an electron, ω0 is the resonant frequency, ω is the incident frequency...

I'm interested in predicting the index of refraction of atmospheric air and several nonpolar gases at room temperature for pressures of 1 atm - 0 atm. I'm not really sure where to get started. I have found the relation n=\sqrt{1+\frac{3AP}{RT}} but I don't really get where it comes from. Well...

Why does light bend in a denser medium?

Homework Statement A person looking into an empty container is able to see the far edge of the container's bottom. The height of the container is h, and its width is d. When the container is completely filled with a fluid of index of refraction n and viewed from the same angle, the person...

Hi everyone! Just wondering why when light hits glass it can pass through and be reflected at the same time. I'd like the classical and quantum explanation if possible. Also try to keep it simple. Thank you!

Hi, there. I don't understand how the light travel in the medium which has the index of refaction below one from the following topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_external_reflection “For X-rays, however, all materials have indices of refraction slightly below 1. ” I did some...

Homework Statement i am confused which eqaution to use for formula of refraction at spherical surface , do i need to put a modulus for n2-n1 ? some book gives modulus , while the other book not . which one is correct? Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution

Homework Statement A semi-circle shaped cylindrical glass block has a radius of curvature of 10.0cm. and a refractive index of 1.50 as shown. A pin is placed at the centre of curvature O . How far from the surface do the pin appear to be when it is viewed along the axis of the spherical...

Could you please check the following problem? The book made an approximation. I didn't in my method. But the difference seems considerable. Did I make a mistake?

A double-slit experiment is set up using a helium-neon laser (l = 633 nm). Then a very thin piece of glass (n = 1.50) is placed over one of the slits. Afterward, the central point on the screen is occupied by what had been the m = 10 dark fringe. How thick is the glass? I have the solution's...

As I understand it, when you beam white light through a glass prism, light disperses and refracts. Red light refracts the least and violet light refracts the most. I am dying to know: why do different frequencies of light have different angles of refraction? Specifically, why is it that an...

So I have this very primitive doubt- When light travels through a medium its wavelength changes,so does the colour even change, as it is also associated with it? I mean that if we had a photographic plate as a detector to detect the colour change in the medium. Like if I send blue light through...

There have been many posts requesting a quantum mechanical explanation for the refraction of light through glass, but none of them (as far as I'm aware) explain why higher frequency light refracts more than lower frequency. Can anybody explain why?

The Speed of yellow light( from a sodium lamp) in a certain liquid is measured to be 1.92E8 m/s. What is the index of refraction of this liquid for the light?

Homework Statement A penny is placed at the bottom of a glass cylinder that is 30 cm in height. If the cyclinder is filled to 2/5 its volume: How much closer to an eye does the coin appear when viewed from directly above? 2. The attempt at a solution I don't quite know how to...

Could anyone please write the derivation (or forward me to the source of derivation) of the formula related these two properties. http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath187/kmath187.htm the first fomula in this article. thanks

Yeah sure, change in speed of light as it travels from one medium to another. But why does it affect the path? I mean, shouldn't the light ray just go in the same direction with a different speed? Why does it have to change its path?

A ray of violet light enters a 60° glass prism at an angle of incidence of 40°. If the refractive index of the prism material for violet light is 1.651 calculate: (a) The angle of refraction for the air-glass boundary (b) The critical angle for violet leaving the glass (c) The...

Recently, I have read a lot about the physics behind negative refraction, super lenses, meta-materials and the like and I think I understood the theory to quite some detail. Negative refraction was predicted first by sowiet physicists around Mandelshtam [1,2], and, a paper by Veselago [3,4]...

Homework Statement After swimming, you realize you lost your room key whilst in the pool. You go back at night and use a flashlight to try and find it. The flashlight shines on it, which is at the bottom of the pool, when the flashlight is held 1.2m above the surface and is directed towards a...

Homework Statement The diagram shows light incident from above on a film of thickness d. Each of the three materials in the figure can be chosen to be air, with index of refraction n=1.00, water, with index n=1.33, or glass, with index n=1.50. Under which of the following conditions will the...

I seem to not be able to differentiate between the two of these phenomenons. Please give me some example in daily life to show the difference between them.

As a physics student, I was taught that refraction happens because when light approaches a material with a refraction index that is different than the index of the medium it is traveling through at that moment, the light that hits it first, as shown here: This raises to me two questions...

Homework Statement Light of wavelength 600 nm in air enters a piece of glass. The speed of light in this glass is 0.650 times the speed in air. Calculate the angle of refraction, Given that the angle of incidence of this light ray is 40°. Homework Equations Snell's Law Sin(θ1)/sin(θ2)...

does the incidence angle and refraction angle have to add up to 90 I'm trying to figure out the geometry of thin film refraction!

[Mentor's note: this thread does not use the normal homework forum template because it was originally posted in a non-homework forum, then moved here.] A light beam is incident on a sphere with refractive index n=√3 at an angle i from air and emerges parallel to the horizontal axis passing...

Homework Statement Why is refraction an important property of light?Homework Equations The Attempt at a Solution Refraction is turning or bending of a wave, such as light or sound, as it pass from one substance to another. So why is refraction an important property of light? Refraction is...

Homework Statement You decide to become a forensic pathologist because you enjoy working with dead people-they don't talk back-more than with the living. In one murder investigation, you find an unknown liquid in the victim's stomach. To identify this liquid, you pour a known amount of it onto...

Hi, I try to solve excercises from the book Stellar Atmospheres by Mihallas. I'm stuck on this one: By use of Snell's law, n_1(\nu)\sin{(\theta_1)}=n_2(\nu)\sin{(\theta_2)}, in the calculation of the energy passing through an unit area on the interface between two dispersive media with...

I want to apologize first of i post at the wrong section, not very sure if this is the right place for this post. First question, does the photon get absorbed when it hit highly reflecting material like mirror ? What make them look so different from the other transparent object? And I just...

Homework Statement I understand the basic formula per say of the apparent shift due to glass slab (t(1-1/u)) But when a question comes on i just don't know how to proceed. For ex this question came on my test and i just couldn't visualise how to make ray diagram or even attempt it.Homework...

Homework Statement You are coating a glass lens of index of refraction 1.6 with a film of material of index of refraction 1.7. You start with the thinnest film possible that creates a strong reflection for 610 nm light. You gradually increase the film thickness until you again get strong...

Homework Statement At the He-Ne laser wavelength (L= 632.8 nm) the refractive indices of crystal quartz are n o = 1.54264 and n e = 1.55171 calculated from its Sellmeier equation. The laser is incident from the air onto the surface of crystal quartz at an angle of incidence of 45 degrees...

I have no idea how to do this or where to start. Can someone please help me? At the He-Ne laser wavelength (L= 632.8 nm) the refractive indices of crystal quartz are n o = 1.54264 and n e = 1.55171 calculated from its Sellmeier equation. The laser is incident from the air onto the surface of...

When does refraction take place!? For refraction of light rays to occur, rays should travel from one medium to another, but what exactly is the boundary between two media? For example, will light rays from (dirt stuck on a lens SURFACE or a finger touching the surface) undergo refraction from...