Question

nsider a common mirage formed by superheated air immediately above a roadway. A truck driver whose eyes are 2.00 m above the road, where n = 1.000 293, looks forward. She perceives the illusion of a patch of water ahead on the road. The road appears wet only beyond a point on the road at which her line of sight makes an angle of 1.30° below the horizontal. Find the index of refraction of the air immediately above the road surface. (Treat this as a problem in total internal reflection. Give your an

Answer 1

Answer:

$n_{air} =1.0000355$

Explanation:

from snells law we have following relation

$n' Sin i = n_{air} Sin r$

$n_{air}$ is refractive index of air

n' -  refractive index of air below

i is angle of incidence = 90 - 1.30 = 88.70^o

r is refraction angle

plugging all value in above formula

$1.000293 \times sin 88.7 = n_{air} \times sin 90$

$n_{air} =1.0000355$