A biologist keeps a specimen of his favorite beetle embedded...

A biologist keeps a specimen of his favorite beetle embedded in a cube of polystyrene plastic. The hapless bug appears to be $2.0 \mathrm{cm}$ within the plastic. What is the beetle's actual distance beneath the surface?

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Key Concepts

Refraction

Refraction is the bending of light as it passes from one medium into another with a different refractive index. This phenomenon causes objects under a transparent medium to appear at a shallower depth than they actually are because the light rays change direction at the interface between the two media.

Index of Refraction

The index of refraction is a dimensionless number that indicates how much the speed of light is reduced in a given medium compared to its speed in a vacuum. It is central to applying Snell's law, which quantitatively describes the bending of light, and plays a critical role in determining the relationship between the actual depth and the apparent depth of an object seen through the medium.

Apparent Depth

Apparent depth refers to the depth at which an object seems to be when viewed through a medium due to the bending of light rays (refraction). Because of this refraction, the observed or apparent distance is less than the object's true distance beneath the surface—a relationship that can often be approximated by the formula: actual depth = apparent depth multiplied by the index of refraction of the medium.

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