Do you see the other little beaker inside this one? No, right? This is because the larger beaker is filled with mineral oil, which has the same index as pyrex glass, which is what these beakers are made out of. There is a smaller beaker that is tucked within the larger beaker. Since they have the same index, the medium they transfer through has about the same speed of light.
What is a refraction? Refraction is the changes in light speed due to the changes in medium. We can calculate this by using the equation n (index of refraction, no units) = c (speed of light) / v (speed of light in the medium). There are many different speeds of light depending on what medium you're dealing with. For example, the n of air is 1. On the other hand, the n of diamonds are 2.42. That's a big difference!
We can also use Snell's law to find out the direction of refracted rays. I don't know how to make thetas and subscript on this website, so I copied this equation from a classmates, but I promise it's in my notes.
Credit: Matt's blog -> http://physics2011summer.blogspot.com/
Hey! You're picture looks better than mine. xD
ReplyDeleteYou can kind of see the smaller beaker in my picture, if you look really close.
That "snell's law" is probably the most mysterious rule we've learned all summer long.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw it on the board, I thought it was called "shell's law".
Then Mr. Blake said it was called "snail's law".
And now you think it's called "Snell's law"??? SO Confuzzled!
@ari: Thanks Ari(: *your
ReplyDelete@Sean: I thought it waas Snell's Law idk..