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Physics Lesson 12.3.2 - Refraction of Light Waves
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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Refraction of Light Waves, this is the second lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Refraction of Light, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
Refraction of Light Waves
The phenomenon of refraction is more obvious in light waves. Thus, if you insert a finger or a straw in water, it will seem as broken due to the phenomenon of light refraction when it changes medium (here from air to water). Look at the figure.
There is no change in the colour of the straw; this is a confirmation of the fact that frequency of waves during refraction does not change (frequency of light is related to its colour).
The question arisen at this point is: Is there any regularity in the light bending when it enters into a new medium?
The answer is YES. We can find the direction of a light ray when it enters into a new medium if the initial quantities are known. For this, the Laws of Refraction explained in the next paragraph comes to help.
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 12.3.2 Refraction of Light Waves. There are 7 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Refraction of Light, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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Enjoy the "Refraction of Light Waves" physics lesson? People who liked the "Refraction of Light lesson found the following resources useful:
- Waves Feedback. Helps other - Leave a rating for this waves (see below)
- Optics Physics tutorial: Refraction of Light. Read the Refraction of Light physics tutorial and build your physics knowledge of Optics
- Optics Revision Notes: Refraction of Light. Print the notes so you can revise the key points covered in the physics tutorial for Refraction of Light
- Optics Practice Questions: Refraction of Light. Test and improve your knowledge of Refraction of Light with example questins and answers
- Check your calculations for Optics questions with our excellent Optics calculators which contain full equations and calculations clearly displayed line by line. See the Optics Calculators by iCalculator™ below.
- Continuing learning optics - read our next physics tutorial: Interference and Diffraction of Light
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