Final answer:
When light passes from glass to air at a 45-degree angle of incidence, the value for the sine of the angle of refraction exceeds 1, indicating that total internal reflection occurs and no refraction angle is present as light does not exit the glass.
Step-by-step explanation:
To find the angle of refraction when a light ray passes from glass to air with an angle of incidence of 45 degrees, we need to apply Snell's Law, which relates the indices of refraction of the two media to the angles of incidence and refraction.
The formula for Snell's Law is n1 * sin(i) = n2 * sin(r), where n1 and n2 are the indices of refraction of the first and second media (glass and air, respectively), 'i' is the angle of incidence, and 'r' is the angle of refraction. The index of refraction for air is approximately 1, and for typical glass, it's around 1.5.
Using Snell's Law, we solve for 'r' as follows:
- sin(r) = n1/n2 * sin(i)
- sin(r) = 1.5/1 * sin(45 degrees)
- sin(r) = 1.5 * (1/√2)
- sin(r) = 1.5/√2
- sin(r) ≈ 1.0607 (which is impossible, since the sine of an angle cannot be greater than 1)
In this case, since the result exceeds 1, the situation implies that there is no real angle of refraction because total internal reflection occurs. Hence, light does not exit the glass at a 45-degree angle of incidence; instead, it is totally internally reflected within the glass.