when light travels from air into glass at an angle of incidence greater than o degrees, how is it bent in relations to the normal?
When light travels from air into glass at an angle of incidence greater than 0 degrees, it gets bent towards the normal.
To understand why this happens, we need to consider the concept of refraction. Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one medium to another. The amount of bending depends on the change in speed of light between the two mediums. In this case, the mediums are air and glass.
The angle at which the light ray meets the surface between the two mediums is called the angle of incidence. The normal is an imaginary line perpendicular to the surface at the point of incidence.
According to Snell's law, the relationship between the angle of incidence (θ1), angle of refraction (θ2), and the refractive indices of the two mediums (n1 and n2) is given by:
n1 * sin(θ1) = n2 * sin(θ2)
Since the refractive index of glass is greater than that of air, n2 > n1. As a result, for an angle of incidence greater than 0 degrees, sin(θ2) will be greater than sin(θ1). Therefore, the angle of refraction (θ2) will be smaller than the angle of incidence (θ1).
In simple terms, as light enters the glass from air at an angle, it slows down due to the change in medium. This change in speed causes the light to bend towards the normal.