Thursday, April 22, 2010

REFRACTION (aka. the Pink Floyd Theorem.... or Snell's Law)

The Speed of Light = 299 792 458 m / s

However, through denser mediums such as glass or a beer, the speed of light is slowed down.  If it enters the medium at an angle other than 90 degrees, then the light is bent.  this is called REFRACTION


Refraction of light: 

Blue light is refracted more than Green or Red because these colours are all on different wavelengths.
BLUE >refraction GREEN >refrac RED

as demonstrated by Pink Floyd... 


As you can see red has the least amount of refraction, while green and blue are refracted more. 


REFRACTION INDEX (n) OF MATERIAL:

A figure that represents a material's ability to bend light by slowing it's speed .
Air = 1.00
Glass = 1.5 - 1.8
Beer = 1.34




1 comment:

  1. In the first diagrams, what does the (r) and (i) stand for?

    ReplyDelete