Name: Total Internal Reflection From Prism
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 1 min 56 s
Description: You must have seen reflectors on a bicycle. Why are they attached to the mudguards? What use do they have? Let’s watch this video on reflectors to find out.

Question

What are the laws of refraction? What is refractive index? What do you mean by saying that the refractive index of glass is

1.5

?

Accepted Answer

There are two laws of refraction, they are stated as follows:

Incident ray, refracted ray and normal are always lie on the same plane.

Snell's law: According to the law, the ratio of sine of angle of incidence to the sine of angle of refraction is constant. This constant is known as refractive index of the second medium with respect to the first medium.

According to refraction, if a light ray is entering from a rarer to denser medium it will bend towards the normal. The reason why light is bending towards the normal is the lower velocity of light in denser medium, having higher refractive index when compared to the rarer medium, having lower refractive index. A Refractive index is a unit to express the optical density of a medium.

$Refractive index of a medium = \frac{Velocity of light in vacuum/air}{Velocity of light in that medium}$

Refractive index of a medium is the ratio between the speed of light in vacuum and speed of light in that medium. Refractive index tells us about how fast or slow the light travels in that medium compare to vacuum. Refractive index of glass is $1.5$ means that light travels $1.5$ times slower compared to vacuum.

What are the laws of refraction? What is refractive index? What do you mean by saying that the refractive index of glass is $1.5$ ?

Important Questions on Refraction of Light

Learn and Prepare for any exam you want !

What are the laws of refraction? What is refractive index? What do you mean by saying that the refractive index of glass is 1.5?

Important Questions on Refraction of Light

Learn and Prepare for any exam you want !

What are the laws of refraction? What is refractive index? What do you mean by saying that the refractive index of glass is $1.5$ ?