Question

Snell's Law: Light goes from material having a refractive index of n 1 into a material with refractive index n 2. If the refracted light is bent away from the normal, what can you conclude about the indices of refraction

Answer 1

a) the light is close to normal therefore the reference incidence of medium 1 is less than medium n2 where the ray is transmitted.

b) The ray is far from normal in this case the refractive index of medium 1 is greater than index of medium 2

Step-by-step explanation:

The expression for the angle of refraction is

n₁ sin θ₁ = n₂ sin θ₂

refractive index n₁ is for incident light and n₂ is for transmitted light.

We have two cases

a) the light is close to normal therefore the reference incidence of medium 1 is less than medium n2 where the ray is transmitted.

b) The ray is far from normal in this case the refractive index of medium 1 is greater than index of medium 2