Question

A. How long does it take light to travel through a 3.0-mm-thick piece of window glass?

Answer 1

Answer:

a) $1.517\times10^{-11}$ s

b) 3.41 mm

Explanation:

a)

We take the speed of light, c = $3.0\times10^8$ m/s and the refractive index of glass as 1.517.

Speed = distance/time

Time = distance/speed

Refractive index, n = speed of light in vacuum / speed of light in medium

$n=\dfrac{c}{s}$

$s=\dfrac{c}{n}$

$t=\dfrac{d}{c/n}$

$t=\dfrac{dn}{c}$

$t=\dfrac{3\times10^{-3}\times1.517}{3.0\times10^8}$

$t=1.517\times10^{-11}$

b)

We take the refractive index of water as 1.333.

Speed in water = speed in vacuum / refractive index of water

Distance = speed * time

$d=s\times t$

$d=\dfrac{c}{n_w}\times \dfrac{3\times10^{-3}\times1.517}{c}$

$d=\dfrac{3\times10^{-3}\times 1.517}{1.333}$

d = 3.41 mm