When light passes from one medium to another (n1>n2). What happens if the incident angle becomes greater than the critical angle?
Added by Robert M.
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The refractive index (n) of a medium indicates how much light slows down when it enters that medium. When light travels from a medium with a higher refractive index (n1) to a medium with a lower refractive index (n2), it can bend away from the normal. Show more…
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A light ray incident from medium 1 to medium 2, where n1 > n2. When the incident angle exceeds the critical angle ac, the refracted angle exceeds 90°, which means no light is transmitted into medium 2. This is known as total internal reflection. 1) What is the critical angle "ac" (ac < 90 degrees) for total internal reflection to occur? 2) Can total internal reflection occur with n1 < n2? Explain.
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When light passes from a more-dense to a less-dense medium—from glass to air, for example—the angle of refraction predicted by Snell’s Law (see Exercise 81) can be 90 or larger. In this case, the light beam is actually reflected back into the denser medium. This phenomenon, called total internal reflection, is the principle behind fiber optics. Set $\theta_{2}=90^{\circ}$ in Snell's Law and solve for $\theta_{1}$ to determine the critical angle of incidence at which total internal reflection begins to occur when light passes from glass to air. (Note that the index of refraction from glass to air is the reciprocal of the index from air to glass.)
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what happens when light travels from one medium to another with a different index of refraction at a 0 degree angle of incidence?
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