Changes

Jump to navigation Jump to search
1,137 bytes added ,  18:56, December 7, 2007
m
Undo revision 346395 by Special:Contributions/BillOhannity (User talk:BillOhannity) no indication of copyright...?
Line 1: Line 1:  +
'''Snell's Law''' describes how the direction of [[light]] changes when it moves from one medium to another.  The two forms of the law are: <br />
    +
<math> n_1 sin(\theta _1) = n_2 sin(\theta _2) </math> <br />
 +
<math> v_2 sin(\theta _1) = v_1 sin(\theta _2) </math> <br />
 +
 +
where n1 and n2 are the indices of [[refraction]] in medias 1 and 2, respectively, and <math> \theta _1 </math> and <math> \theta _2 </math> is the angle from the normal of the [[plane]] dividing the 2 media and the ray.
 +
 +
The index of refraction of a material is inversely proportional to the speed of light in that material, i.e. light will move slower in a material with a high index of refraction than it will in a material with a low index of refraction.
 +
 +
What Snell's Law says is that when light moves from a medium with a high index of refraction to a medium with a low index of refraction it will bend away the normal of the plane dividing the two media.  Conversely, when light moves from a medium with a low index of refraction to a medium with a high index of refraction it will bend towards from the normal dividing the two media.
 +
 +
[[category: physics]]
5,580

edits

Navigation menu