Final answer:
A fish located 6.10 cm below the water surface appears at an apparent depth of approximately 4.586 cm due to the refraction of light at the water-air interface, calculated using Snell's Law and the refractive index of water.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question at hand involves the concept of refraction, which is part of Physics. When light passes from water into air, its speed changes, causing the light to bend, or refract. This bending of light leads to the optical illusion of the apparent position of an object being different from its actual position, making the object appear closer to the surface. The apparent depth can be calculated using Snell's Law, which relates the ratio of the sines of the angle of incidence and the angle of refraction to the ratio of the velocities of light in the two media, which is also the ratio of their indices of refraction (n1 and n2).
For a fish observed at normal incidence, we divide its actual depth by the refractive index of water to find its apparent depth. Here, the refractive index of water is approximately 1.33 (n1 = 1.33 for water, n2 = 1 for air). Hence, the apparent depth ≈ actual depth / refractive index. The fish, located 6.10 cm below the surface, would appear at an apparent depth of approximately 6.10 cm / 1.33 ≈ 4.586 cm when viewed from directly above.