BRAINCAKESnell's Law
Snell's law links the angles on either side of a boundary to the refractive indices of the two materials:
n1 sin θ1 = n2 sin θ2
n1 and θ1 are the refractive index and angle in the first material, n2 and θ2 in the second. Both angles are measured from the normal, not from the surface. For air, n = 1.00.
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Key terms in this lesson
- normal
- An imaginary line drawn at right angles to a surface or boundary at the point where a ray meets it.
- total internal reflection
- The complete reflection of a light ray inside a medium when it meets a boundary with a less optically dense medium beyond the critical angle.
More in Optics
- Refraction
- Investigating Refractive Index
- Dispersion
- Total Internal Reflection
- Investigating Total Internal Reflection
- Applications of Total Internal Reflection
- Concave Lenses
- Convex Lenses
All 21 lessons in Optics · All Edexcel AS-level Physics topics