4.4 Refraction

Question 1

What happens when a wave travels from one medium into another?

Answer 1

It will change speed but not frequency, wavelength will also change - refraction.

Question 2

How are the angles of incidence and refraction related?

Answer 2

sin@1/v1 = sin@2/v2 (SNELLS LAW)

Question 3

How do we rewrite this equation for light?

Answer 3

@1 = n2sin@2 where n = c/v is the refractive index of the materials, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum.

Question 4

What happens to a ray when it travels from medium 1 to medium 2 where medium two is denser and the wave has a lower wave speed?

Answer 4

It bends TOWARDS the normal.

Question 5

What happens to waves in water?

Answer 5

When waves move from deep to shallow water their speed in shallow water is lower since the distance between the wavefront in shallow water is smaller and so there is refraction.

Question 6

How can toy find the ratio of the speeds of waves in deep and shallow water?

Answer 6

Found from measuring the distances between wavefronts.