Snell's Law (Also Known As Snell-Descartes Law and The Law of Refraction) Is

Snell's law
(also known as Snell-Descartes law and the law of refraction) is

a formula used to describe the relationship between the angles of incidence and refraction,
when referring to light or other waves passing through a boundary between two
different isotropic media, such as water, glass, or air.
In optics, the law is used in ray tracing to compute the angles of incidence or refraction,
and in experimental optics to find the refractive index of a material. The law is also
satisfied in metamaterials, which allow light to be bent "backward" at a negative angle of
refraction with a negative refractive index.
Snell's law states that the ratio of the sines of the angles of incidence and refraction is
equivalent to the ratio of phase velocities in the two media, or equivalent to the reciprocal
of the ratio of the indices of refraction:
with each as the angle measured from the normal of the boundary, as the velocity of
light in the respective medium (SI units are meters per second, or m/s), and as the
refractive index (which is unitless) of the respective medium.
The law follows from Fermat's principle of least time, which in turn follows from the
propagation of light as waves.
Snell's law is used to determine the direction of light rays through refractive media with
varying indices of refraction. The indices of refraction of the media, labeled , and so on,
are used to represent the factor by which a light ray's speed decreases when traveling
through a refractive medium, such as glass or water, as opposed to its velocity in a
vacuum.
As light passes the border between media, depending upon the relative refractive
indices of the two media, the light will either be refracted to a lesser angle, or a greater
one. These angles are measured with respect to the normal line, represented
perpendicular to the boundary. In the case of light traveling from air into water, light
would be refracted towards the normal line, because the light is slowed down in water;
light traveling from water to air would refract away from the normal line.
Refraction between two surfaces is also referred to as reversible because if all
conditions were identical, the angles would be the same for light propagating in the
opposite direction.
Snell's law is generally true only for isotropic or specular media (such as glass).
In anisotropic media such as some crystals, birefringence may split the refracted ray into
two rays, the ordinary or o-ray which follows Snell's law, and the other extraordinary or e-
ray which may not be co-planar with the incident ray.
When the light or other wave involved is monochromatic, that is, of a single frequency,
Snell's law can also be expressed in terms of a ratio of wavelengths in the two
media, and :
In optics, the refractive index or index of refraction of a material is a dimensionless
number that describes how fast light travels through the material. It is defined as
where c is the speed of light in vacuum and v is the phase velocity of light in the medium.
For example, the refractive index of water is 1.333, meaning that light travels 1.333
times as fast in vacuum as in water. Increasing refractive index corresponds to
decreasing speed of light in the material.
Refraction of a light ray
The refractive index determines how much the path of light is bent, or refracted, when
entering a material. This is described by Snell's law of refraction, n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2,
where θ1 and θ2 are the angles of incidence and refraction, respectively, of a ray crossing
the interface between two media with refractive indices n1 and n2. The refractive indices
also determine the amount of light that is reflected when reaching the interface, as well
as the critical angle for total internal reflection, their intensity (Fresnel's equations)
and Brewster's angle.[1]
The refractive index can be seen as the factor by which the speed and the wavelength of
the radiation are reduced with respect to their vacuum values: the speed of light in a
medium is v = c/n, and similarly the wavelength in that medium is λ = λ0/n, where λ0 is the
wavelength of that light in vacuum. This implies that vacuum has a refractive index of 1,
and that the frequency (f = v/λ) of the wave is not affected by the refractive index. As a
result, the perceived color of the refracted light to a human eye which depends on the
frequency is not affected by the refraction or the refractive index of the medium.
The refractive index varies with wavelength, this causes white light to split into
constituent colors when refracted. This is called dispersion. It can be observed
in prisms and rainbows, and as chromatic aberration in lenses. Light propagation
in absorbing materials can be described using a complex-valued refractive index.
[2] The imaginary part then handles the attenuation, while the real part accounts for
refraction. For most materials the refractive index changes with wavelength by several
percent across the visible spectrum. Nevertheless, refractive indices for materials are
commonly reported using a single value for n, typically measured at 633 nm.
The concept of refractive index applies within the full electromagnetic spectrum, from X-
rays to radio waves. It can also be applied to wave phenomena such as sound. In this case
the speed of sound is used instead of that of light, and a reference medium other than
vacuum must be chosen.[3]
Total Internal Reflection
When a ray of light AO passes from an optically denser medium to a rarer
medium, at the interface XY, it is partly reflected back into the same
medium along OB and partly refracted into the rarer medium along OC as
shown in figure.
If the angle of incidence is gradually increased, the angle of refraction r will also gradually increase
and at a certain stage r becomes 90o. Now the refracted ray OC is bent so much away from the
normal and it grazes the surface of separation of two media. The angle of incidence in the denser
medium at which the refracted ray just grazes the surface of separation is called the critical angle c
of the denser medium.
If i is increased further, refraction is not possible and the incident ray
is totally reflected into the same medium itself. This is
called total internal reflection.

If µd is the refractive index of the denser medium then, from Snell’s Law, the refractive index of air
with respect to the denser medium is given by,
µa/ µd = sin i /sin r
1/ µd = sin i/sin r (Since, µa = 1 for air)
If r = 90o, i = c
sin c/sin 90o = 1/µd
Or, sin c = 1/µd
Or, c = sin-1(1/µd)
If the denser medium is glass, c = sin-1(1/µg)
Hence for total internal reflection to take place (i) light must travel from a denser medium to a rarer
medium and (ii) the angle of incidence inside the denser medium must be greater than the critical
angle i.e. i > c.
Table: Critical angle for some media
Refractive
Medium Critical angle
index
Water 1.33 48.75o
Crown
1.52 41.14o
glass
Dense flint
1.62 37.31o
glass
Diamond 2.42 24.41o

Snell's Law (Also Known As Snell-Descartes Law and The Law of Refraction) Is

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Snell's Law (Also Known As Snell-Descartes Law and The Law of Refraction) Is

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Snell's Law (Also Known As Snell-Descartes Law and The Law of Refraction) Is

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Snell's law

(also known as Snell-Descartes law and the law of refraction) is

Water 1.33 48.75o

Diamond 2.42 24.41o

You might also like