Question

If Light is travels from air into pure water with an incident angle of 30°. What is the angle of refraction?

Answer 1

Explanation:

For air, n1 = 1.00003; for water, n2 = 1.3330

Given: θ2 = 30 degrees, then

θ1 = arcsin [(n2/n1) sin θ2]

= arcsin [(1.3330/1.0003) sin (40)]

= 58.93 degrees

Note that since, in this example, light is traveling from a medium of higher density (water; n2 = 1.3330) to a medium of lower density (air; n1 = 1.0003), then n2 > n1, and the angle of refraction (θ1) is larger than the angle of incidence (θ2), thus the light bends away from the normal (in this example, the vertical) as it leaves the water and enters the air.