The refractive index is essentially the speed of light through a vacuum (extremely similar to air) divided by the speed of light through given medium.
I also attached some of my physics notes on refraction and that sort of jazz as they may help :)
<span>Melting of ice is an endothermic process, meaning that energy is absorbed. When ice spontaneously melts, ΔH (change in enthalpy) is "positive". ΔS (entropy change) is also positive, because, becoming a liquid, water molecules lose their fixed position in the ice crystal, and become more disorganized. ΔG (free energy of reaction) is negative when a reaction proceeds spontaneously, as it happens in this case. Ice spontaneously melts at temperatures higher than 0°C. However, liquid water also spontaneously freezes at temperatures below 0°C. Therefore the temperature is instrumental in determining which "melting" of ice, or "freezing" of water becomes spontaneous. The whole process is summarized in the Gibbs free energy equation:
ΔG = ΔH – TΔS</span>
