Question

An incident ray of light strikes a diamond at an angle of 45°. The index of refraction of air is 1.0003 and the index of refraction of a diamond is 2.42.

What is the angle of refraction rounded to the nearest whole number?

2°
17°
19°
45°

Answer 1

Use Snell's law: n1 sinθ1 = n2 sinθ2.

sinθ2 = (n1/n2) sin45° = (1.0003/2.42)·0.70710678 ≈ 0.29228.

θ2 = arcsin(0.29228) ≈ 17°.

Answer: 17°.