I’m not sure what this animation is showing. The wavefronts are discontinuous across the boundary and the refracted direction seems to be arbitrary. Am I looking at it the wrong way?
It will only take a straight line in the same medium. That’s the fastest path.
But when there’s multiple mediums, with different indices of refraction, the light ray will always bend. (Unless the observer and a the light source is perpendicular to the normal of the medium)
If both mediums are only 1 meter the bending will become less obvious.. just like there’s also tides on a glass of water just it’s impossible to see
[GIFV link](https://i.imgur.com/GKYnzpU.gifv)
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I’m not sure what this animation is showing. The wavefronts are discontinuous across the boundary and the refracted direction seems to be arbitrary. Am I looking at it the wrong way?
So what’s the ratio of depth to distance from observer?
This is worth saving for my optics class.
What does “fastest path” mean?
It will only take a straight line in the same medium. That’s the fastest path.
But when there’s multiple mediums, with different indices of refraction, the light ray will always bend. (Unless the observer and a the light source is perpendicular to the normal of the medium)
If both mediums are only 1 meter the bending will become less obvious.. just like there’s also tides on a glass of water just it’s impossible to see
TIL Spoons Emit Light.
Glad you could use them 😀