Questions tagged [refraction]
Change in the direction of propagation of a wave when its transmitting medium changes. The tag does also apply to index of refraction.
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How do parallel reflected rays meet to form image at infinity? If they never meet then how is image formed?
In my textbooks it is written that when an object is kept at focus, its image is formed at infinity and is real. But how is this possible because parallel lines never meet and it is necessary for rays ...
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Ray separation in waveplates
In a birefringent medium, the ordinary and extraordinary rays have different Pointing-vector directions and, therefore, different propagation directions, since the direction of the Poyting-vector ...
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Lens maker’s formula from parabolic approximation
I’m attempting to derive the lens maker’s formula for a thin or thick lens using the parabolic approximation.
I’m familiar with the other proof using the law of refraction and different angles.
The ...
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Property of total internal reflection question
If I create a medium with gradually decreasing refractive index from once face at index 2.0 and other at 1.01, and show a beam of light upon the optically denser side, will there be any losses upon ...
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Deviation suffered by light ray incident on a surface
Problem:
Figure shows two spherical surfaces of radii $R$ and $2R$ separating three transparent media of refractive indices $\mu_1=1, \mu_2=2$ and $\mu_3=4$. A ray of light travelling in medium $\...
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Is the relativistic energy-momentum relation fundamental? [duplicate]
The following relativistic energy-momentum relationship is taken to be fundamental:
$$E^2=p^2c^2+m_0^2c^4.\tag{1}$$
Let us specialize to massless particles ($m_0=0$) so that we have:
$$E=p\ c.\tag{2}$$...
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Is there a way to calculate the angle between the refracted and reflected rays given the refractive index?
Is there a way to calculate the refracted and reflected rays? I know we use Snell's law to calculate the refracted rays, but is there a formula to calculate the angle of the reflected rays, or does it ...
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Fermat principle: how did they know the speed of light in different mediums?
Pierre de Fermat derived his principle of least time by considering the path that light would take when traveling between two points. He postulated that light would follow the path that minimized the ...
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What causes the plane contrails to bend in the foreground of the eclipse?
This looks almost like refractive index of air is different in the shadowed part, but what would cause that?
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Apparent position of object in bowl of water
Say you have a bowl of water and you keep an object in it. What would the apparent position of an object inside the bowl from the position of an outside observer? Will the curvature of the spherical ...
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Difference between deviation of ray and wavefront
This is a reference to the question posted by
Govind Prajapat Refraction of light through a slab of variable refractive index
A monochromatic light wave is incident normally on a glass slab of
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Is refraction a special case of diffraction according to the book by Charles Kittel?
Wikipedia defines diffraction as -
Diffraction is the interference or bending of waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/...
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QFT view of lower light speed of light in medium [duplicate]
In classical EM theory, if we have a medium whose dielectric coefficient is independent of wavelengths (suppose we filter the incoming signal to a certain frequency band), then the waveform gets to ...
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Why the photons are deflected during the refraction? [duplicate]
From what I learnt, when photons are passing throw a denser environnement with an positive angle (from the atmosphere to water for exemple), they are slow down. But I can't understand how this ...
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Why do shockwaves refract when they travel into the ground?
If a shockwave from something like an explosion travels into the ground, why will it refract? The speed of sound is far different in the ground, but what would make it refract? I can’t seem to find ...
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