In the following diagram, a ray of light is incident on an air-glass boundary. The index of refraction of air is 1, and the index of refraction for the glass is 1.4. What is the angle of the reflected ray, and what is the angle of the refracted ray?
How can you mistake "School Subject" for the name of your school, especially when examples are given?
Read the directions; then follow them!
School Subject: ________ (Examples: math, science, algebra, geography)
All you know is that the ratio of their sines is 1.4
Unless you know one of the angles, you cannot determine the other.
To determine the angles of the reflected and refracted rays, we can use Snell's law, which relates the angles and indices of refraction of light passing through an interface between two different media.
Let's denote the incident angle as θi, the angle of the reflected ray as θr, and the angle of the refracted ray as θt.
Snell's law states that the ratio of the sine of the incident angle to the sine of the refracted angle is equal to the ratio of the indices of refraction:
sin(θi) / sin(θt) = n2 / n1
where n1 is the index of refraction of the first medium (air) and n2 is the index of refraction of the second medium (glass).
In this case, the index of refraction of air (n1) is 1, and the index of refraction of glass (n2) is 1.4.
Therefore, we can rewrite Snell's law as:
sin(θi) / sin(θt) = 1.4 / 1
Since the index of refraction for air is 1, the equation simplifies to:
sin(θi) / sin(θt) = 1.4
To solve for θr and θt, we need to know the incident angle (θi).
Could you provide the incident angle in the diagram?