Index of refraction

From Conservapedia
This is the current revision of Index of refraction as edited by FredericBernard (Talk | contribs) at 17:22, April 7, 2017. This URL is a permanent link to this version of this page.

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

The index of refraction is a quantity that expresses the degree to which a medium refracts light. The index is given by , where c is the speed of light in a vacuum and is the phase velocity of light in the medium. For media that absorb as well as refract light, the index of refraction is expressed as a complex number whose imaginary component expresses the absorption.