Question #b6edb

1 Answer
Alexander L.
Dec 4, 2014

Index of refraction is simply:

  1. The ratio of speed of light in vacuum to speed of light in a medium
  2. The ratio of wavelength of light in vacuum to wavelength of light in medium.
  3. The ratio of #sinTheta# to #sinPhi#. Where #Theta# is the angle in a lighter medium (usually air or vacuum) and #Phi# is the angle in heavier medium.

Your calculations should always be bigger or equal to 1. Otherwise it makes no sense unless you have proven it experimentally (you ought to win the Nobel Prize for that).

Deriving the Index of Refraction is very interesting but I suppose that this would suffice.

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