Final answer:
In transparent media, as the frequency of light increases, the index of refraction also increases. This phenomenon is associated with the dispersion of light, where high-frequency light is bent more than low-frequency light when passing through materials like glass or water.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question at hand addresses the relationship between the frequency of light and the index of refraction in transparent media. In physics, particularly optics, as the frequency of light increases, the index of refraction typically increases. This is due to the dispersion of light, where different frequencies (or colors) of light are refracted by different amounts when passing through a material. For example, in a prism, higher frequency light (like blue and violet) is bent more than lower frequency light (like red), indicating that the index of refraction is higher for higher frequencies.
When a light ray travels from air into a denser medium such as glass or water, the speed of light decreases, and the wavelength also decreases as per the relationship c = λν, where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, λ is the wavelength, and ν is the frequency. The ray of light bends towards the normal due to the increase in index of refraction. Contrarily, if the light ray moves from a denser medium to a lesser dense medium, it bends away from the normal, as the index of refraction decreases.