Question

If a light ray is traveling from an object(clear plastic) into the air, and the refractive index for air is 1.00, how can the refractive index for clear plastic be calculated

Answer 1

You can use Snell's Law that relates the angles of the ray in the clear plastic and in the air to the ratio of their refraction indexes (n):

`(n_(plastic))/(n_(air)) =(\sin\theta_(air))/(\sin\theta_(plastic))`

If you measure the two angles by experiment, then you can calculate the index of refraction of the clear plastic:

`n_(plastic) =n_(air)\cdot(\sin\theta_(air))/(\sin\theta_(plastic))=1.0\cdot(\sin\theta_(air))/(\sin\theta_(plastic))`