Imagine that you are standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool, you look ahead at the bottom of the pool and see a coin, Describe the difference between where the coin appears to be and where it actually is.
a clear plastic cube, with exactly the same index of refraction as water is placed in a container of water, would you be able to see the plastic cube in the water if you looked at it from an angle explain why or why not
i need help understanding
Google Snell's law. They always show that particular picture :) Perhaps google spear fishing as well
in the second question, something with the same color and index of refraction does not bend or reflect or anything and is invisible.
http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Light-and-Sight/Teaching-and-Learning-Approaches/Investigating-refraction-and-spearfishing
When you are standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool and look at the bottom of the pool, you will notice something interesting. The position of the coin that you see is not actually where it appears to be. This phenomenon is known as refraction.
Refraction occurs when light passes from one medium (in this case, air) into another medium (water), causing the light to change direction as it crosses the boundary between them. As a result, the path of the light rays gets bent, making the coin seem to be at a different position than it really is.
To understand the difference between where the coin appears and where it actually is, you can think of it this way:
1. Apparent position: The coin's apparent position is where it seems to be when you look at it from above the water. Since light bends as it enters the water, the rays of light coming from the coin will also change direction. Your eyes receive these refracted rays and trace them back, making you see the coin slightly above its true location.
2. Actual position: The actual position of the coin is its true location at the bottom of the pool. However, due to refraction, the light rays coming from the coin undergo a change in direction when they pass from water to air and reach your eyes. This change in direction gives the impression that the coin is higher or closer to the surface than it really is.
Now, let's move on to the second question about the clear plastic cube in a container of water. If the cube has the same index of refraction as water, you would not be able to see it when looking at it from an angle. This is because when the index of refraction of the medium and the object are the same, the light does not bend or refract as it passes from one to the other. As a result, the light rays coming from the cube would not change direction as they cross the boundary between the cube and the water. Therefore, the cube would be visually indistinguishable from the water, making it virtually invisible when viewed at an angle.