Snell's law, often referred to as the law of refraction, is a fundamental principle in the field of optics, a branch of physics. This law describes how light behaves when it passes from one medium to another, such as from air into water or from glass into air.
The formal statement of Snell's law relates the angles of incidence and refraction to the indices of refraction of the two media. It is usually written as:
\[ n_1 \sin(\theta_1) = n_2 \sin(\theta_2) \]
where:
- \( n_1 \) is the refractive index of the first medium,
- \( n_2 \) is the refractive index of the second medium,
- \( \theta_1 \) is the angle of incidence (the angle between the incoming light ray and the normal to the surface),
- \( \theta_2 \) is the angle of refraction (the angle between the refracted light ray and the normal to the surface).
This law helps to understand and predict how light bends, or refracts, as it travels through different substances, which is crucial for the design of lenses, optical instruments, and many aspects of wave optics.
What topic in physics is smells law of refraction
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