What happens to light when it travels from air to glass?
It is refracted, bending towards the normal if entering a more dense material.
What occurs to the speed of light when it enters a denser medium?
The speed of light decreases and the wavelength shortens.
What remains unchanged when light is refracted?
The frequency of the light.
What is the refractive index?
A number indicating a material’s ability to bend light, always greater than 1.
How is the refractive index calculated?
By dividing sin(θ_air) by sin(θ_material).
What happens to different wavelengths of light when passing through a prism?
Shorter wavelengths (blue) are refracted more than longer wavelengths (red).
What is total internal reflection?
It occurs when light travels from a denser medium to air at an angle greater than the critical angle.
What is the critical angle?
The angle of incidence at which light is refracted at 90° in the less dense medium.
How can the critical angle be calculated?
Using the formula sin(θ_c) = n_air / n_glass.
What experimental setup can measure the refractive index of a glass block?
A semicircular glass block and a ray box to measure angles of incidence and refraction.
What is the relationship between wave speed and refractive index?
n = v_air / v_medium.
What is the formula for calculating the refractive index using angles?
n = sin(θ_air) / sin(θ_glass).
What occurs when the angle of incidence exceeds the critical angle?
Total internal reflection occurs.
What is the effect of light traveling from water to air?
It can also undergo total internal reflection if the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle.
What is the significance of the refractive index being a unitless number?
It indicates the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to its speed in the medium.
What happens to the light ray when it enters the center of a semicircular glass block?
It does not bend if directed at the center, as it passes along the normal.
What is the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction in the context of refractive index?
They are related by the sine of the angles and the refractive index.
What does a graph of sin(θ_air) against sin(θ_glass) represent?
It produces a straight line through the origin, indicating a linear relationship.
