Asked by mimis
A 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: v = c/n. With c ≈ 300,000 km/s, v = 200,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.5 (typical of liquids/glass), v ≈ 250,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.2 (a less dense medium, i.e. a gas, is faster than a liquid), and the beam finally "halts" when it hits an opaque solid (absorbed or reflected, not transmitted). The other orders are inconsistent because opaque solids don't transmit light and gases are generally less optically dense than liquids.
Reason: v = c/n. With c ≈ 300,000 km/s, v = 200,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.5 (typical of liquids/glass), v ≈ 250,000 km/s gives n ≈ 1.2 (a less dense medium, i.e. a gas, is faster than a liquid), and the beam finally "halts" when it hits an opaque solid (absorbed or reflected, not transmitted). The other orders are inconsistent because opaque solids don't transmit light and gases are generally less optically dense than liquids.
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