Question

Consider a glass pane. When is the angle at which a ray of light strikes the glass pane on one side not the same as the angle at which it exits the glass pane on the other side?

a) When the glass pane is at an angle to the incident light
b) When the glass pane is perpendicular to the incident light
c) When the glass pane is curved
d) When the glass pane is made of a different material

Answer 1

The angle of a light ray changes when it passes through materials with different refractive indices, due to the phenomenon of refraction. This angle change does not depend on the angle of the pane itself, but rather on the material properties.

Step-by-step explanation:

The angle at which a ray of light strikes the glass pane on one side is not the same as the angle at which it exits the glass pane on the other side when the glass pane is made of a different material than the medium the light is coming from. This difference in angles is due to refraction, which occurs when light travels across a boundary from one transparent material to another, causing the speed of propagation to change. Again, at a non-normal incident angle, the path of the light ray bends closer to the perpendicular in the optically slower substance, which is the substance with the greater refractive index.