+956 A beam of light travels from sapphire into an unknown material. The angle of incidence is 45o and the angle of refraction is 57o. What is the refractive index of the unknown material? What material is this likely to be?
Please use this format:
Given:
Find:
Formula:
Solution:
+33653 refractive index of sapphire ≈ 1.77 so sin(i)/sin(45) = 1.77, sin(i) = 1.77*sin(45)
relative refractive index between the two materials is sin(57)/sin(45) ≈ 1.186, sin(57) = 1.186*sin(45)
refractive index of other material is sin(i)/sin(57) = 1.77*sin(45)/(1.186*sin(45)) ≈ 1.5
Likely material: Glass.
