Light is passing from a medium with index of refraction 1.3 to a medium with index of refraction 2.1. With what angle must the light enter the second medium in order to continue traveling along a path of 30¬° to the normal?
Use Snell's Law
Example:
A 1m-tall boy is feeding goldfish in a pond. He is standing 1.5m from the edge of the pond. He sees a goldfish that appears to be at the very edge of his vision (if the fish were any closer to the edge of the pond, the boy would not be able to see it). The pond is .3m deep at this point and the fish is swimming along the bottom. How far is the fish from where it appears to be? Take
Using Snell's Law, it is possible to find the actual angle the light reflecting from the fish forms with the normal:
With this angle, it is now possible to fin the actual distance between the fish and the edge of the pond:
Therefore, the difference between the distance from the wall that fish appears to be and the actual distance between the fish and the wall is .45-.241=.209m.
