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A beam of light is incident on a flat piece of polystyrene at an angle of 21.98o relative to a surface normal. What angle does the refracted ray make with the plane of the surface ?

User Alkasm
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1 Answer

29 votes
29 votes

Given:

The angle of incidence is


\angle i\text{ = 21.98}^(\circ)

The light travels from the air to polystyrene.

The refractive index of air is n1 = 1

The refractive index of polystyrene is n2 = 1.6

Required: Angle of refracted ray.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to Snell's law,


\begin{gathered} n1sin\text{ i =n2sin r} \\ sin\text{ r=}\frac{n1sin\text{ i}}{n2} \end{gathered}

On substituting the values, the angle of refraction will be


\begin{gathered} sin\text{ r =}\frac{1* sin\text{ 21.98}^(\circ)}{1.6} \\ r=sin^(-1)(\frac{1s\imaginaryI n(\text{21.98})^{\operatorname{\circ}}}{1.6}) \\ =13.53^(\circ) \end{gathered}

The angle of refraction is 13.53 degrees.

Final Answer: The angle of refraction is 13.53 degrees.

User Ultradoxx
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