Refraction Block

Index of refraction of the block
1.00 2.50
1.50

The light is emitted by the red dot, which is in air. The light strikes the side of a rectangular block. Some of the light reflects back into the air, and some is transmitted into the block. When the light emerges from the far side of the block, in what direction is the light traveling, compared to the direction the light was going before it hit the block? The red reference line can guide your thinking.

Note that you can move the light source left or right, and you can adjust the index of refraction of the block.

Simulation first posted on 2-25-2017. Written by Andrew Duffy

Creative Commons License
This work by Andrew Duffy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This simulation can be found in the collection at http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/classroom.html.

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