When light propagates through two adjacent materials that have different optical properties, some interesting phenomena occur at the interface separating the two materials. For example, consider a ray of light that travels from air into the water of a lake. As the ray strikes the air-water interface (the surface of the lake), it is partly reflected back into the air and partly refracted or transmitted into the water. This explains why on the surface of a lake sometimes you see the reflection of the surrounding landscape and other times the underwater vegetation.

These effects on light propagation occur because light travels at different speeds depending on the medium. The index of refraction of a material, denoted by n , gives an indication of the speed of light in the material. It is defined as the ratio of the speed of light c in vacuum to the speed v in the material, or

n=cv

Part A

Part complete

When light propagates from a material with a given index of refraction into a material with a smaller index of refraction, the speed of the light

Part B

What is the minimum value that the index of refraction can have?

0

+1

−1

between 0 and 1