Practice question · Multiple choice
Light bends toward the normal entering glass and away from it leaving. What explains both?
Hints
- Picture a marching band crossing from pavement onto mud at an angle.
- Which end of the row slows first?
Show the answer
D. Light travels more slowly in the denser medium
Why
One mechanism, two directions. This is also why total internal reflection happens only going from slow to fast, the refracted ray would need a sine greater than one.
Practise Geometric Optics: Reflection and Refraction
The app has 8 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Physics I is free to start.
More questions on Geometric Optics: Reflection and Refraction
- Which are properties of a real image formed by a converging lens?
- A fisherman looks down at a fish under the water’s surface. Because light bends when leaving the water, where…
- Light enters glass, where it travels at 2×10⁸ m/s instead of 3×10⁸ m/s. Estimate the index of refraction of…
- The angle of incidence equals the angle of refraction when light passes into a denser medium.