Tuesday, April 10, 2018

optics - What is Snell's law's main formula?


My book states it as (sini)/(sinr)=n. However, University Physics has a different say. It says, nasina=nbsinb. Which of the following is correct?



Answer



The second one is more general.


In general, Snell's law can be stated as:


n1Sin(θ1)=n2Sin(θ2)



Where n1 is the index of refraction of the medium of the incident ray, n2 the index of refraction of the medium of the refracted ray, and θ1 and θ2 are the angles of the incident and refracted rays, respectively (with respect to the normal plane of refraction).


The first equation you have is a particular case where n1=1, which is approximately the index of refraction of the air (many problems you'll encounter assume the incident ray comes from a medium of air)


No comments:

Post a Comment

classical mechanics - Moment of a force about a given axis (Torque) - Scalar or vectorial?

I am studying Statics and saw that: The moment of a force about a given axis (or Torque) is defined by the equation: $M_X = (\vec r \times \...