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Muggo
Using a green laser instead of a red laser seems to change the way the ray changes during refraction. Why is that so?
Just as an aside, have no you not ever seem a prism in action? It splits a white light beam into a spectrum of colors using exactly the mechanism described by Drakkith, so it's hardly surprising that you are getting the results you are getting.Muggo said:Using a green laser instead of a red laser seems to change the way the ray changes during refraction. Why is that so?
That would depend upon the range of frequencies involved. Nothing works the same from DC to daylight.boneh3ad said:If the propagation medium is nondispersive,
boneh3ad said:I feel I should point out that with a prism, this is obvious but it's not a general rule. If the propagation medium is nondispersive, for example, then there's no frequency dependence for the phase velocity and therefore refraction.
The wavelength of light is directly related to the amount of refraction it experiences when passing through a medium. This is because different wavelengths of light have different speeds in a given medium, and this difference in speed causes the light to bend at different angles. In general, longer wavelengths (such as red light) will experience less refraction than shorter wavelengths (such as blue light).
This is because the speed of light in a medium is dependent on the wavelength of the light. When the wavelength changes, the speed of light also changes, which then causes the light to bend at a different angle when passing through a medium. This phenomenon is known as dispersion.
Yes, a change in wavelength can cause a change in the direction of refraction. This is because the angle at which light refracts is directly related to the speed of light in a given medium. So, when the speed of light changes due to a change in wavelength, the angle of refraction will also change.
Yes, there is a specific relationship between wavelength and the amount of refraction. This relationship is described by Snell's Law, which states that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the speeds of light in the two media.
One way to observe the effects of wavelength on refraction is by conducting an experiment using a prism. When white light passes through a prism, the different wavelengths of light are separated, causing the light to refract at different angles. This creates a rainbow effect, with shorter wavelengths (such as blue light) being refracted more than longer wavelengths (such as red light).