Question

What is the speed of light in a rectangular prism if its index of refraction is 1.5? Given: speed of light in a vacuum v = 3.00 x 10^8 m/s Index of refraction of ethyl alcohol n = 1.5 Required: Find the speed of light in the prism. Analysis and Solution:

Answer 1

The speed of light in a rectangular prism can be found by dividing the speed of light in a vacuum by the index of refraction of the material. In this case, the speed of light in the prism is approximately 1.9986 x 10^8 m/s.

Step-by-step explanation:

The speed of light in a vacuum is c = 2.99792458 × 10^8 m/s.

The index of refraction of a material is n = c/v, where v is the speed of light in a material and c is the speed of light in a vacuum.

To find the speed of light in the rectangular prism, we need to use the equation v = c/n.

Given that the index of refraction is 1.5, we can substitute this value into the equation to find the speed of light in the prism as:

v = (2.99792458 × 10^8 m/s) / 1.5 = 1.99861639 × 10^8 m/s