Question

A ray of 610 nm light goes from air into fused quartz at an incident angle of 55.0 degrees. At what incident angle must 470nm light enter flint glass to have the same angle of refraction?

n (air)= 1.00
n (fused quartz)=1.458
n (flint glass)= 1.66

Answer 1

When light passes from one medium to another, its path changes due to refraction. The incident angle of the light ray is the angle between the ray and the perpendicular line to the surface of the medium. To calculate the incident angle for 470 nm light entering flint glass, we can use Snell's Law and the given indices of refraction.

Step-by-step explanation:

Incident Angle and Refraction

When light passes from one medium to another, its path changes due to refraction. The incident angle of the light ray is the angle between the ray and the perpendicular line to the surface of the medium. The angle of refraction is the angle between the refracted ray and the perpendicular line to the surface of the medium.

According to Snell's law, the ratio of the sine of the incident angle to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the indices of refraction of the two media.

Calculating the Incident Angle

In this scenario, the incident angle for 610 nm light entering fused quartz is 55.0 degrees. To determine the incident angle for 470 nm light entering flint glass, we can use Snell's Law. The indices of refraction for the two media are given: n(Air) = 1.00 and n(Flint Glass) = 1.66.

We can calculate the angle using the formula: sin(incident angle) = (n(Air) / n(Flint Glass)) * sin(refraction angle). Rearranging the formula, we get sin(refraction angle) = (n(Flint Glass) / n(Air)) * sin(incident angle). Substituting the values, sin(refraction angle) = (1.66 / 1.00) * sin(55.0 degrees).

We can then find the refraction angle using the inverse sine function. Finally, we subtract the refraction angle from 90 degrees to find the incident angle for the 470 nm light in flint glass.