Final answer:
Refraction of light involves the bending of light rays as they pass from one medium to another due to a change in speed. This change is governed by Snell's law and depends on the media's indices of refraction, causing light to slow down or speed up and consequently bend towards or away from the boundary's perpendicular.
Step-by-step explanation:
Description of Light Refraction Through a Medium
Refraction of light refers to the phenomenon where light waves bend as they pass from one medium to another. This occurs because the speed of light changes depending on the medium it traverses. The law that describes this change in direction is known as Snell's law. When light moves from a medium with a lower index of refraction to one with a higher index, it slows down and bends towards the perpendicular to the boundary. Conversely, light speeds up and bends away from the perpendicular when it moves from a medium with a higher index of refraction to one with a lower index.
The index of refraction is a dimensionless number that describes how much the speed of light is reduced in a particular medium compared to the speed of light in a vacuum. For instance, light in water travels at three-fourths the speed of light in a vacuum, and in diamond, it slows down to 41 percent of that speed. The magnitude of the change in the light's path depends on the relative indices of refraction of the two media involved: the greater the difference, the more pronounced the bending.
Refraction can create various optical effects, such as the apparent shallowness of water bodies when viewed from above. The sequential bending of light at different interfaces can also lead to complex phenomena such as thin-film interference. Understanding refraction is crucial for the analysis of various optical devices, including lenses and prisms, which manipulate light for various applications.