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Refraction from Air to Glass and Glass to Air

There is a reciprocal relationship between the refractive indices from air to glass and glass to air.
airnglass=    1    
glassnair
Light is refracted towards the normal when is passes from air to glass and the angle of incidence is greater than the angle of refraction.The angle of incidence is between the normal and the incident ray.
Light is refracted away from the normal when is passes from glass to air and the angle of incidence is less than the angle of refraction.The angle of refraction is between the normal and the refracted ray.

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Specification: AQA Physics (7407), AS-level, 3.3.2.3 Refraction at a plane surface. Topic: Optics.

Key terms in this lesson

Vector quantity
A physical quantity that has both magnitude and direction.

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