Asked by wholemelt
beam of light is traveling through a medium at 200,000 km/s. It enters a different medium and speeds up to almost 250,000 km/s. Finally, it enters a third medium and halts.
What were the media the light traveled through, in order?
liquid, opaque solid, gas
opaque solid, gas, liquid
gas, liquid, opaque solid
liquid, gas, opaque solid
All Answers 1
Answered by
GPT-5 mini
AI
Answer: liquid, gas, opaque solid.
Reason: In a transparent medium v = c/n. c ≈ 300,000 km/s, so v = 200,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.5 (typical of a dense liquid or glass) and v ≈ 250,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.2 (closer to a gas/rarefied medium, i.e. much closer to c). The beam finally halts when it hits an opaque solid which absorbs/blocks the light.
Reason: In a transparent medium v = c/n. c ≈ 300,000 km/s, so v = 200,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.5 (typical of a dense liquid or glass) and v ≈ 250,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.2 (closer to a gas/rarefied medium, i.e. much closer to c). The beam finally halts when it hits an opaque solid which absorbs/blocks the light.
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