Concept explainers
You have just installed a new bathroom in your home. Your shower doors have frosted glass to provide privacy for the person using the shower. The frosted surface is on the outside of the shower door, facing the rest of the bathroom. The frosting is done by acid etching the surface so that light incident on the rough surface is scattered in all directions. Proud of your new bathroom, you take a photo of it with your smartphone. You notice in the photograph that you can see a reflection of the flash in the shower doors and the reflection is surrounded by a halo of light. Curious, you turn on a laser pointer and aim it at the shower door. Looking closely at the reflection, you again see a halo that consists of a dark area surrounding the reflection of the pointer and then an area of brightness outside this dark ring. You grab a micrometer and a ruler and measure the thickness of the glass to be 6.35 mm and the inner radius of the bright halo to be 10.7 mm. From these measurements, you determine the index of refraction of the glass.
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Chapter 34 Solutions
Physics for Scientists and Engineers
- Light is incident on a prism as shown in Figure P38.31. The prism, an equilateral triangle, is made of plastic with an index of refraction of 1.46 for red light and 1.49 for blue light. Assume the apex angle of the prism is 60.00. a. Sketch the approximate paths of the rays for red and blue light as they travel through and then exit the prism. b. Determine the measure of dispersion, the angle between the red and blue rays that exit the prism. Figure P38.31arrow_forwardLight traveling in a medium of index of refraction n1 is incident on another medium having an index of refraction n2. Under which of the following conditions can total internal reflection occur at the interface of the two media? (a) The indices of refraction have the relation n2 n1. (b) The indices of refraction have the relation n1 n2. (c) Light travels slower in the second medium than in the first. (d) The angle of incidence is less than the critical angle. (e) The angle of incidence must equal the angle of refraction.arrow_forwardWhat happens to a light wave when it travels from air into glass? (a) Its speed remains the same. (b) Its speed increases. (c) Its wavelength increases. (d) Its wavelength remains the same. (e) Its frequency remains the same.arrow_forward
- A goldfish is swimming inside a spherical bowl of water having an index of refraction n = 1.333. Suppose the goldfish is p = 10.0 cm from the wall of a howl of radius |R| = 15.0 cm. as in Figure P23.22. Neglecting the refraction of light caused by the wall of the bowl, determine the apparent distance of the goldfish from the wall according to an observer outside the bowl. Figure P23.22arrow_forwardLight enters a prism of crown glass and refracts at an angle of 5.00 with respect to the normal at the interface. The crown glass has a mean index of refraction of 1.51. It is combined with one flint glass prism (n = 1.65) to produce no net deviation. a. Find the apex angle of the flint glass. b. Assume the index of refraction for violet light (v = 430 nm) is nv = 1.528 and the index of refraction for red light (r = 768 nm) is nr = 1.511 for crown glass. For flint glass using the same wavelengths, nv = 1.665 and nr = 1.645. Find the net dispersion.arrow_forwardUnreasonable results Light traveling from water to a gemstone strikes the surface at an angle of 80.00 and has an angle of refraction of 15.2°. (a) What is the speed of light in the gemstone? (b) What is unreasonable about this result? (c) Which assumptions are unreasonable or inconsistent?arrow_forward
- Consider a light ray that enters a pane of glass with air on one side and water on the other side as shown in Figure P38.21. The light ray experiences refraction at the first interface when it enters the glass from the water and again at the second interface when it exits the glass into the air. Assume the index of refraction of the glass is 1.54. For a ray of light, find the angle of incidence 1 in the water such that the ray experiences total internal reflection when it strikes the glassair interface on the other side. FIGURE P38.21arrow_forwardFigure P22.16 shows a light ray traveling in a slab of crown glass surrounded by air. The ray is incident on the right surface at an angle of 55 with the normal and then reflects from points A. B, and C. (a) At which of these points does part of the ray enter the air? (b) If the glass slab is surrounded by carbon disulfide, at which point does part of the ray enter the carbon disulfide?arrow_forwardThe Sun appears at an angle of 53.0 above the horizontal as viewed by a dolphin swimming underwater. What angle does the sunlight striking the water actually make with the horizon?arrow_forward
- Unpolarized light in vacuum is incident onto a sheet of glass with index of refraction n. The reflected and refracted rays are perpendicular to each other. Find the angle of incidence. This angle is called Brewsters angle or the polarizing angle. In this situation, the reflected light is linearly polarized, with its electric field restricted to be perpendicular to the plane containing the rays and the normal.arrow_forwardPierre de Fermat (16011665) showed that whenever light travels from one point to another, its actual path is the path that requires the smallest time interval. This statement is known as Fermats principle. The simplest example is for light propagating in a homogeneous medium. It moves in a straight line because a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Derive Snells law of refraction from Fermats principle. Proceed as follows. In Figure P34.54, a light ray travels from point P in medium 1 to point Q in medium 2. The two points are, respectively, at perpendicular distances a and b from the interface. The displacement from P to Q has the component d parallel to the interface, and we let x represent the coordinate of the point where the ray enters the second medium. Let t = 0 be the instant the light starts from P. (a) Show that the time at which the light arrives at Q is t=r1v1+r2v2=n1a2+x2c+n2b2+(dx)2c (b) To obtain the value of x for which t has its minimum value, differentiate t with respect to x and set the derivative equal to zero. Show that the result implies n1xa2+x2=n2(dx)b2+(dx)2 (c) Show that this expression in turn gives Snells law. n1sin1=n2sin2 Figure P34.54 Problems 54 and 55.arrow_forwardCurved glassair interfaces like those observed in an empty shot glass make it possible for total internal reflection to occur at the shot glasss internal surface. Consider a glass cylinder (n = 1.54) with an outer radius of 2.50 cm and an inner radius of 2.00 cm as shown in Figure P38.105. Find the minimum angle i such that there is total internal reflection at the inner surface of the shot glass. FIGURE P38.105 Problems 105 and 106.arrow_forward
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