![]() Light travels more quickly in the lower region, so light coming down from the sky (from not too steep an angle) is refracted back up again, giving a blue puddle appearance to the asphalt-a mirage. Width of the fringes is equal in interference. In diffraction they are not perfectly dark. The region of minimum intensity is perfectly dark in interference. Thus the two are entirely different in nature. On a hot day, the air directly over the surface of an asphalt road is warmer than the air higher up. Secondary wavelets originating from different parts of the same wave front constitute diffraction. The boundary between media does not have to be abrupt for reflection or refraction to occur. Since the index of refraction in most substances depends on the frequency of the wave, light of different colors is refracted by different amounts-hence the colorful rainbow effect of prisms. The reflection and refraction of light explains how people see images, colour and even optical illusions. Light passing through a prism is mostly refracted, or bent, both when it enters the prism and again when it leaves the prism. Reflection and refraction All waves will reflect and refract in the right circumstances. Incident light waves tend to be fully reflected from a boundary met at a shallow angle at a certain critical angle and at greater angles, some of the light is also refracted looking at the surface of water from a boat, for instance, one can see down into the water only out to where the sight line reaches the critical angle with the surface. ![]() Waves entering a medium with a lower index are accelerated and leave the boundary and enter the second medium at a lesser angle. Waves entering a medium with a higher index of refraction are slowed, leaving the boundary and entering the second medium at a greater angle than the incident wave. The amount of deviation or bending depends on the indexes of refraction of each medium, determined by the relative speed of the wave in the two media. Refraction occurs, as in a lens, when a wave passes from one medium into the second, deviating from the straight path it otherwise would have taken. Reflection occurs, as in a mirror, when a wave encounters the boundary but does not pass into the second medium, instead immediately changing course and returning to the original medium, typically reflecting from the surface at the same angle at which it contacted it. An instrument called a spectrometer uses diffraction to separate light into a range of wavelengthsa spectrum. It is most pronounced when a light wave strikes an object with a size comparable to its own wavelength. By definition, the index of refraction for a vacuum is exactly 1. The media might consist of two different substances, such as glass and air, or a single substance in different states in different regions, such as air at different temperatures or densities in different layers. Diffraction is the bending and spreading of waves around an obstacle. Usage The terms refraction and reflection describe two ways that waves, as of sound or light, change course upon encountering a boundary between two media.
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